Jaune Arc the Praetor
by Panzer4life
Summary: Luck and skill were not Jaune's strong suit. He should've been going through the initiation, but no, instead he ends up in a lab with a large robot suit. In this new world, will Jaune Arc make a name for himself and possibly find love, or will he be crushed by this world's darkness? Rated M for language, violence, and future Lemons.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: I don't own Infinite Stratos nor do I own RWBY. They are owned by their respective owners and this is a work for entertainment value, not for profit._

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Chapter 1:

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"Ugh, my head," moaned a blonde hair, blue eyed, young man that while not impressively well built was on his way to becoming well-toned. He gazed around, realizing quickly that something was wrong; not like a little wrong, but very seriously wrong. The kind of wrong that makes you extremely paranoid and suspicious and makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

The first sign was that instead of flying through the air and ending up in a forest due to his rather stubborn idea of becoming a huntsman by going to Beacon Academy, he was somehow inside a room with white walls, tiles, and ceiling panels. The lights were also rather bright, which gave made the room he was in something he imagined to be a laboratory of some sort. The young man saw a door at the other end of the hall.

"Well Jaune, you really are a fuck up," the young man cursed at himself. "Might as well see if I can find out where the hell I am." Getting off the floor, Jaune walked towards the door, patting his side from his shield and his…wait, where was his sword? Jaune glanced down to his sheath (which was also his shield, simply folded up. Not seeing his sword not in the sheath, Jaune glanced back, seeing his sword…next to a big ass robot of some kind.

The robot was roughly twice as tall as him, and seemed to roughly be in proportion to a human, with clearly definable legs and arm, but Jaune could tell that the thick armor plating wasn't there for show. It was painted in silver and red, with yellow-maybe gold was a better term- highlights. It reminded Jaune of the massive robotic knights that one of his comics had.

"Ookay, seriously, where am I now?" Jaune asked himself. "Last thing that happened was I was being told by Ozpin that I had to come up with my own landing strategy, flying through the air, and then…then what?"

Jaune knelt down to pick his sword up, only to see a bit of blood on the floor. Hazarding a guess at how that got there, Jaune touched the back of his head, feeling his hair wet with what seemed to be his blood. It did seem to him that he had hit his head on the floor, his sword falling out of its sheath, and that explained his lack of answers, the blood, and his sword, but it didn't explain why he was in the room, nor why he couldn't feel any blood coming out. In fact, he could feel the blood on his hair had begun to harden, not coming out fresh.

"Alright, why aren't I still bleeding, head wounds don't stop bleeding on their own, at least that's what I know from TV and comics," Jaune said to himself, before face palming. "Really, now I feel stupid; TV and comics aren't the real world, why did I seriously think I could become a huntsman?"

What Jaune didn't know, because his family was staunchly against him becoming a huntsman due to his father's death when Jaune was fourteen, was that when he had hit his head onto the floor and was knocked out, his aura activated in a time of great need, allowing him to heal from his injury before he awoke. If it wasn't for his aura awakening, he wouldn't be alive at this very moment.

Shaking himself of his monologue, Jaune put his father's sword, Crocea Mors, into its sheath and began to walk to the door, only to stop upon hearing footsteps and voices coming from the other side.

"Damn security systems, why did they suddenly malfunctioned?" cursed a man. Jaune could hear another snort.

"No shit, and it was during the ball game, I have a bit of cash riding on Brazil beating Chile in the semi-finals."

"Huh, go figure, I'm betting Chile to win, they crushed France last week," the first man said. "anyway, let's finish our route and get back to the game, I don't get paid enough to tolerate any horseshit tonight."

"Amen to that," the second man agreed. Jaune began to panic.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Jaune hissed to himself. "The fuck am I going to do?" Turning around, Jaune looked at the robot, thinking for a moment before nodding. "Better idea than any other!"

Jaune, as silently as he could, turned the lights off and darted to behind the robot, climbing up to where he was fully hidden from anyone looking down the room. As he climbed, Jaune failed to notice that several of the yellow highlights were actually lights, and that they had turned on. Jaune took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerve, but when the door open, he genuinely believed that his heartbeats would give him away. He prayed for a miracle.

"Alright, let's see if anything appears out of the ordinary." Jaune could hear the voice of the first man quite clearly with the door open, and for the life of him Jaune couldn't place the accent.

"Well, nothing seems…wait a moment, is the project's lights on?" Jaune felt his stomach plummet. He glanced down and saw that some of the gold highlights were glowing brightly. To make matters worse, the light was turned on, and he heard the guards' next words.

"The hell, where did that blood come from?!" the first guard yelled out. "Michael, get the others to start searching the facility, we might have an intruder!"

"How the hell did someone get pasted us, this facility is built into a mountain and the only entrance is through us!" the second guard, Michael asked.

"Fuck if I know, maybe there's a back entrance that no one deemed important enough to inform us lousy guards about," the first guard stated. "Just get the others down here and begin a sweep of the facility; last thing we need is for the bitch to judge us 'lowly men' again!"

"Alright, alright I'm getting them now," Michael replied. "Guard Post Central, this is Officer Michael Lupin, we found blood in the IS holding bay, and it seemed to have been activated. Requesting back up to find the intruder." Jaune felt any hopes of not being found disappear as he heard the radio squawk back.

"Roger Officer Lupin, sending units 2 through 4 to your position. Units 5 and 6 will lock down the facility, while unit 7 informs Dr. Adessi and her team of the intrusion." Jaune wondered just how many men were going to be scouring the facility, looking for him. And what the hell is an IS, was it this robot he was clinging onto for dear life? He listened as the guards began talking amongst themselves again.

"Alright Herschel, sounds like Ross's, Sean's, and Luc's units are on their way, might be a few minute before they get geared up, any ideas on where the intruder could be?" Michael asked.

"Not a clue, let's think about this rationally," Herschel said. "The intruder, somehow, bypasses us and gets into the IS bay. Somehow, they activate the IS, so why haven't they blitz through our defenses and made a break for it? Better yet, why is there blood on the floor?"

"Perhaps the intruder realized that the IS hasn't been retrofitted with the offensive and defensive systems yet?" Michael suggested. "Those are kept in the fabrication lab in Bay B1, whereas we are in A2. They would have to hope they could get a floor down and a lab over before being detected, and with the safety protocols in place, it wouldn't be possible."

"Okay, fair point, but what about the blood, we haven't explained that yet," Herschel stated. Jaune could practically hear Michael shrug.

"Who knows, perhaps the intruder is a fucking clutz and slipped on the floor. You know how slippery these floors are, remember when Luigi slipped down the stairs and knocked over Dr. Adessi?"

"Yeah, poor bastard got canned because the bitch was too uptight, she seriously needs to get laid."

"Don't we all know that," Michael agreed. "Alright, so if the intruder couldn't get the IS out of the bay for reasons, where the hell would be the most logical place they would go?"

Jaune prayed, hoping the men would overlook the obvious, because it would be too obvious and he really, really didn't want to be caught in what he supposed was a military facility. However, he seemed to be fate's little bitch, because Herschel came up with the suggestion.

"What about behind the IS?" Jaune was screaming in his head, pleading for a miracle of some kind. And for the first time, it seemed the powers above decided to listen to Jaune.

"Don't be ridiculous," Michael scoffed at the idea. "That would mean the intruder was listening to our entire conversation without making a noise. Plus, wouldn't the first thing you would do if you couldn't achieve your objective to be to get the hell out of the facility?"

 _Thank you all mighty Oum for saving me_ , Jaune rejoiced in his head. However, he had to tempt fate, and one thing no one ever did was give fate a reason to smite your ass. For Jaune, his smiting came in the form of his sweaty fingers, due to having no training in maintain his grip upon anything, begin to give way. Jaune had just a moment to realize what was going to happen.

 _Aw hell no!_ Jaune's grip suddenly vanished as his fingers slipped from their holdings. Unable to get a word out, Jaune could see the two men turning to see him as he fell, only to become reacquainted with the floor.

"Fuck me," Jaune uttered before he lost consciousness, his last sight being the two guards rushing towards him.

* * *

"Aw, he's coming to," Jaune heard an unfamiliar feminine sounding voice speaking. "I doubt he will be much of an issue for you Doctor, seeing as he is restrained." Jaune tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't get them to open; they felt very heavy.

"Thank you Vera, you may take you leave if you wish," another woman said. Jaune suddenly felt very trapped, as he could only assume the woman who had just spoken turned her gazed to him, and from the first woman's statement, he was restrained. He wondered what almighty power he has pissed off enough to warrant such retribution. Jaune could hear a person walk out and a door click shut, leaving him alone, restrained, with some woman watching him.

He struggled to get his eyes open, managing just barely as he saw the woman open up a file. She appeared slightly younger than his mother, with auburn colored hair, slightly tanned skin, and wearing a pair of thin framed glasses that allowed her azure colored eyes to be seen through. He felt and knew he should be very afraid, as the woman, despite being quite young, seemed to scream control.

"So I see you're awake now," the woman stated with indifference, not bothering to lift her eyes to gaze at him, instead focusing on the file. "Do you have anything to say for yourself before I begin the interrogation?"

Jaune felt a lump in his throat, not knowing if he should speak or not. He hadn't meant to end up in the facility, wherever it was, but he seriously doubted she would buy whatever reasons he could come up with, not that he could. He didn't even know how he got here or where he was.

"I see, choosing not to speak," the woman clicked her tongue. "Very well, I guess we shall begin. What's your name?"

Jaune, deciding that lying like he had to get into Beacon would get him something far worse than expulsion from an academy, decided to simply answer the questions as best he could; perhaps they would find him not guilty of anything except being in the wrong place at the wrong time? _Yeah right_ , he thought.

"Jaune Arc," Jaune answered. The woman gazed toward something, but Jaune had hard enough time opening his eyes, let along tilt his head to see what she was gazing at, so he hoped to hell it was something that would make him out to be some innocent guy instead of some spy or something.

"How old are you Mr. Arc?"

"Seventeen years old."

"I see, so tell me Mr. Arc, how does a 17-year-old boy such as yourself infiltrate past a full security team, several cameras, get passed at least six ID-locked doors, and manage to get to the IS prototype?" the woman demanded. Jaune began sweating.

"I don't know, seriously, I don't know!" Jaune cried out. "I woke up in that room after what I think hitting my head on something! I don't know how I got there, and I don't know where I am!"

Jaune knew he was panicking, but seriously, who wouldn't be? He was being questioned about infiltration, something he knew from his talks with his grandfather meant death for spies. He didn't want to die, especially not for something he didn't intentionally do!

"So you're claiming amnesia?" the woman asked coldly. Jaune wobbled his head side to side in denial.

"No, I just don't know how I got here; last I know I was supposed to be going through initiation for the academy!" Jaune said, before wondering if the woman knew about Beacon. If she didn't, then he was in a world of trouble.

The woman seemingly paused, her gaze fixed on something beyond Jaune's line of sight.

"So you mean to tell me it was a school prank of some sort that landed you here?" Jaune shook his head again.

"No, I seriously doubt that, but I don't know how I got into, wherever here is!" Jaune exclaimed once more. "I would tell you, I swear, but I don't know!" The woman gazed down at Jaune in a way several teachers in his past had, scrutinizing him like he was under a microscope.

"Tell me Mr. Arc, does the term IS mean anything to you?" the woman asked, folding her left leg over her right. Jaune shook his head.

"No," Jaune answered. The woman frowned for a moment, something that worried Jaune greatly.

"Mr. Arc, please tell me, if you had no idea where you were, then why did you hide from the guards?"

"I didn't know where I was, but since I heard the guards, I hid because I doubt they believe anything I would say," Jaune admitted honestly.

"I see," the woman said. "Pray tell, why did you have a sword and shield?" Jaune tried to think for a rational explanation; technically only huntsman, police officer, military personal, or those registered in combat school and huntsman academies were allowed to carry weapons. Thankfully the woman provided a convenient out for him.

"Was it for a club's initiation? The one you were perhaps partaking in before you ended up in this facility?"

"Yes," Jaune said, not knowing that the woman had been gauging his response to a heart monitor. So far, he had been telling the truth, but the woman caught him in a lie. However, the woman knew despite it being a lie, it wasn't a complete lie, more like a twisted truth.

"Alright then Mr. Arc, I suppose I should report my findings to my superiors," the woman said. "Whether you are released or not it dependent on if they think you are telling the truth. I wouldn't hold out on a release if I were you."

The woman got up, walking to the door, leaving Jaune to wallow in despair. He was certain he was doomed.

* * *

Exiting the room, Dr. Adessi smirked as she closed the door. She loved manipulating people; perhaps it made her a sadist, but still, leaving a person with the impression they were doomed made it all easier for her to manipulate them later. After all, if you were actually the one with the power, you could guarantee them freedom, but why grant them it so easily. Why not make them think they have to earn it?

"Are you sure this is a wise idea?" came the voice of head lab technician Alexander. "He could be a criminal."

"I highly doubt that," Adessi stated confidently. "Mr. Arc is a terrible liar, yet he maintained his story till the end when I gave him his out. Besides, it's not like we have a choice. The _Praetorian's_ IS core bonded to him, somehow."

The problem was that the _Praetorian_ was to be Italy's first generation 3.5 or 4th IS platform, and as such came with a personal IS core, which only bonds to one person at a time. This came with the advantage of evolving to the operator's skills, which allows for a self-improving system. However, it meant that with Arc's bond to the core, the _Praetorian_ couldn't be used for a time by anyone other than Arc. And no one knew how long the bond would take to be complete; IS technology was in its infancy, and as such there wasn't a lot of hard data on bonds.

The reason Mr. Arc's case was unique was that, until last week and last night, no IS has ever bonded with a male operator. This with the IS's impressive military capacity turned the male-dominated society on its head, with female taking the reins. While some Japanese boy had bonded with an IS first last week, Mr. Arc was still the second male to ever bond with an IS.

To many, it would be something to wonder over; how did two males bond to two different IS cores? But for Adessi, it was something to study. If she could determine what made the IS cores female-preferring, and make a modified core that wasn't gender specific, she could easily give Italy a powerful advantage, as well as take her place amongst the scientific legends, perhaps surpassing that illusive Tabane.

"I get that, but how will you get him to cooperate willingly, and how will you get the government to sign off on him going to the IS Academy?" Alexander asked. Adessi chuckled darkly.

"I already have a plan to give Jaune a seemingly one way offer; either he agrees to 'volunteer' to work on the program on our behalf, or he risks imprisonment if 'my higher ups' decide he is too much a security risk. As for the government, they want a IS representative badly; with many IS Reps from other nations heading to the Academy for training their personal ISs, Italy is currently looking weak. However, with Mr. Arc, we give the government there IS rep, and we get an operator for the _Praetorian_."

Alexander nodded, his mind quickly compiling a list of pros and cons to her plan. However, Adessi had been a master of human manipulation for decades, using her knowledge to sway her university professors into giving her bigger grants and projects, and it only grew from there. She knew that Alexander would be easy to control, and she knew she could trust him not to go behind her back and sabotage her manipulation of Jaune.

"Leave him to stew in fear for a few hours, I will return to give my offer. When all goes to plan, we can begin testing out the _Praetorian_ 's basic functions to ensure it will work. We can always send the upgrade packages to the IS Academy for a retrofit once we have built and tested them," Adessi informed Alexander, who merely nodded, before he turned around and left. Adessi smirked again as she left; soon, her ambitions and dream would come into fruition, and the suffering of her past will be smothered by the gilded future she would have.

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 **Author's Notes: So yeah, a new story. And it's an Infinite Stratos/RWBY crossover. And its Jaune-centric. I know I have other stories I need to work on, but sometimes, I can't work on them stories, and other times I want to work on something new. So here this is. A few things first.**

 **First, where the hell did this story come from? Well, I've actually been sitting on this idea for about…nearly a year now, and it came from a plot bunny of a Jaune Arc/Laura Bodewig story. So I began outlining the story, coming up with various ideas, but until about three months ago it never really got enough momentum for me to get it out of my proto-type story into my active story folder. Then I got a spur of writing momentum after updating almost all of my active stories, with only two minor stories which I need to update, but I'm stumped on at the moment.**

 **Where did this second wind come from? Well, it began when I thought more closely to what Jaune is in RWBY. He is the loveable idiot that in battle takes the role of tank.**

 **Seriously, name one character in RWBY that actually focuses on defense? Pyhrra sure, but her semblance means that she doesn't really need to defend in the traditional manner that Jaune does. She can simply force any weapon off target and move in the kill. Jaune meanwhile has to focus on his defense and attack when an opportunity shows itself.**

 **Thus it led to me designing Jaune's IS suit to reflect this. The Praetorian is essentially its namesake; designed like the Roman Praetorians of old, marching in formation, their shield raised with either pilums or gladius at the ready, taking the fight to the enemy.**

 **Next, I thought about who Jaune should be within the story. Originally, I was going to pair him with Laura, but Jaune wasn't interested in anyone with a Yandere personality like Laura. No, he focused on Weiss for seasons 1-2 of RWBY, who was entitled, had high class mannerism, and knew what they wanted. The best person in Infinite Stratos that fit this personality would Cecila Alcott, who is a snobbish, self-entitled British girl that does develop into an actually character and not remain stactic.**

 **Thus I had Jaune's IS and his future love interest figured out, but then I had to figure out when would I dump him out of RWBY-verse and into Infinite Stratos-verse. The solution that made the most sense (and provide a gold mine of future material due to how I plan the story) would be at the start of his initiation at Beacon. This would cause a literal butterfly effect in the RWBY-verse, which I won't explain now because a bit of it would be spoiling my plans for future content. The how Jaune ends up there will remain largely unexplained whereas the why will be explained, just in the future, but suffice it to say, blame the rabbit (no not Velvet, Tabane!).**

 **Well, this Author's Note is getting quite long, so I want to wrap it up by explaining what will appear from each verse and what wont. From Rwby-verse, the only changes will be the lack of the maidens and the 'silver eye warriors (I hate Deus Ex Machina when it's done so cliché), but Salem will be appearing, and Cinder's plans are less 'I want the maidens' power' and more 'I want to rule the world, regardless if it is in ashes'.**

 **From IS, well, mostly it will follow Season 1 of the anime, with the cringe-worthy Russian IS rep not making an appearance, or as she appeared in Season 2. The whole conspiracy will be there, but it will be larger and more of a threat, thus making a shift from the high-school life with mechs of season one to a more serious 'time is running out and lives are on the line' tone.**

 **Well, that's it for now, until next time, please follow, favorite, and review the story, and I'll see you guys next time.**

 **P.S: Anyone got a shipping name for Jaune/Cecila?**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Praetorian

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"And this is where you will be staying for the duration of your stay before shipping out to the IS Academy as Italy's IS Representative," Dr. Adessi informed Jaune. The room was modest, one bed, a desk in the corner with a shelf above for books, and finally a computer that Jaune figured was probably secured by several firewalls and barriers to prevent intrusion.

Jaune nodded, but his mind was far from the conversation, and instead was mulling over his decision to accepted Dr. Adessi's offer hours earlier. He knew he was backed up to the wall, but it didn't make him feel any easier; he felt like he made a deal with the Devil, and by Oum he wasn't going to be given an easy way out.

"Now how about we see the IS unit you will be operating, shall we?" Dr. Adessi said with a smile, though Jaune was at least able to read through the lies; it was time to obey his master.

"Of course," Jaune said, putting a placating smile on his face. "Although can you explain the significance of the IS unit?" Dr. Adessi nodded.

"Since you don't know what an IS suit is, I would be glad to explain as we walked to the retrofitting center," Dr. Adessi stated, walking out of Jaune's room and to the elevator, with Jaune in tow.

"The IS suit originally was a space-faring suit, designed to enable the user enhance mobility in the zero-gravity of space, with on board systems to be able to handle anything it could conceivably face. At first, it was scoffed, as Space Exploration has been in a decline due to resource shortages and the world economy only just recovering from a near depression."

"That all changed when a month later an unknown hacker hacked missile bases and ships all over the world to launch over 2300 ICBMs and cruise missiles, with the target being the major cities in Japan. The first combat capable IS unit, dubbed the White Knight due to its white frame, manage to disable 1200 of the missiles with its sword and the rest with its energy weapons."

"Of course, this alarmed the international community, and several nations sent warships and fighters to engage and destroy the White Knight. Unfortunately, the White Knight proved too capable, downing 200 Generation 5.5 aircraft and neutralizing five carrier battle groups. The White knight as suddenly as it appeared disappeared, but its performance had left its mark."

"Not even a week after the incident, every nation signed the Alaska Treaty, which states that all IS development must be disclosed to the world at all, that no IS may be used in a war of aggression unless attacked by a force with an IS, exchanging an IS core is prohibited, and that the IS Academy would be raised in Japan, where all IS reps and potential pilots must be train. However, it altered the world in several other 'unintended consequences'."

"Due to some unknown reason, IS cores seem to react only to female, thus flipping the gender role in the world. For the first time is several millenniums, females became the dominate force in society. In addition, military planning became focused on making IS suits akin to capital warships of the early 1900s."

"But I thought you said the IS suits were prohibited by the Alaska Treaty from being used in war," Jaune pointed out. "Why would military doctrine change to center around a banned weapon?" Dr. Adessi smirked, glad to see Jaune picking up on the slight hypocrisy of the world's governments.

"It's similar to Mutually Assured Destruction," Dr. Adessi noted. "If one country has an IS, which can only be countered by another IS, then it would be necessary to have an IS of your own to counter it. In effect, all the countries are using the IS units like nuclear weapons did during the nuclear age; preventing a war that would result in untold damages and possibly starting a very violent third World War."

"But aside from the significance of the IS unit in general, the IS unit you are going to be using is the 4th Generation IS Unit _Praetorian_ , Italy's first proper foray into IS research and development. Designed and built solely in Italy by yours truly, the _Praetorian_ is designed to be a defensive, close combat IS, taking advantage of the IS core's copious energy to allow the IS more physical protection than any contemporary while still maintain a decisive amount of mobility. It has reduced shield capacity, but on the whole, the physical protection was decided to be better, as most of the IS units in use favor energy weapons, which can be defeated by advance ceramic plate armor."

Dr. Adessi motioned Jaune to enter the elevator they had arrived at, before entering herself and punching in the floor she wanted. For the short moment, Jaune was glad for the silence as he wasn't expecting to be involved in such a world altering…movement, no, perhaps research? Whatever it was, he wasn't expecting to be involved in something that affected the world at large in such a massive way.

Seriously, the thought of a single suit able to change the world so radically was unlike anything Jaune had ever seen or heard of in any media on Remnant. Usually, the media in Remnant focused on heroes that accomplished so much in the face of the endless Grimm hordes, not dealing with anything quite like this.

"We're here Jaune," Dr. Adessi said, bringing Jaune out of his internal musing, and Jaune saw the robot from the lab earlier. Here Jaune could see with the knowledge that Dr. Adessi had given him how the _Praetorian_ was indeed quite formidable. The silver, red, and gold IS stood as a formidable sentry, its armor giving Jaune the sense that it wouldn't break so easily. But as he glanced at the IS unit, Jaune noted the distinct lack of a weapon.

"Dr. Adessi, where is the _Praetorian's_ weapons?" Jaune asked. He saw the auburn haired doctor smile.

"While designing the _Praetorian's_ frame was easy, designing a suitable weapon wasn't," Dr. Adessi admitted. "However, thankfully, you came by?"

"Huh, how did my coming help with arming the Praetorian?" Jaune inquired.

"You see, the sword and shield you came with, well, they were made from materials that we simply didn't even think to consider. After analyzing them, your sword and shield seemed to be a composite mix of steel and osmium. Due to the rarity of osmium on Earth, we decided to instead modify your sword and shield to fit the Praetorian instead of building them from scratch. Ah, their they are now. I say they are fitting for the _Praetorian_ wouldn't you?"

Jaune blanched as he saw his grandfather's sword and shield Crocea Mors changed quite drastically. While the sword was still in a gladius style, it was now lengthened to be more size appropriate for the suit, but it was the shield that went the greatest change. Instead of the diamond shape it had, it was reshaped to be a rectangular and semi-cylindrical. Again, like the sword, the shield was made to be the right size for the _Praetorian_. Jaune seriously hoped he never went back to Remnant and had to explain what happened to his grandfather's weapon to his mother; that was a recipe for disaster.

"Yes, yes they are," Jaune said after realizing he was quiet for a while. "But what about other offensive weapons? Surely Is frames wouldn't be limited to melee weapons, would they?"

"Indeed they aren't," Dr. Adessi said. "However, until such time as we can develop weapons that fit within the style of combat the _Praetorian_ is meant for, your sword and shield will be your best option. I trust you have some experience in wielding a sword and shield?"

"Yes I do," Jaune said. It wasn't a lie, but to say he was good was. He had been training with his dad from the age of 12 until his father's death two years later, when his mother and sister insisted he stop training. That being said, Jaune still snuck out to train, but without his father to correct his mistakes, Jaune didn't improve, he stagnated badly.

"Good, then I want you to use our simulator down in the lab there," Dr. Adessi said, pointing to a pod off to the side of the _Praetorian_. "Until your first run in the Praetorian in two days. I don't expect miracles, but I want to see noticeable progress with each session."

"I understand," Jaune said.

"Good, then meet with my assistant Vera; she will show you how to use the simulator as well as provide advice so you can improve. I have to meet with Dr. Alexander to see if the sword and shield are going to perform as anticipated." Jaune nodded and headed to the simulator, wondering how it would go.

* * *

"God, I'm so tired," moaned Maya Yamada, the greenette looking at the pile of paperwork she had completed. It was admittance papers for the IS academy, including incoming IS reps, pilots, engineers, and scientists. It had taken her five days to go through it, and that was with the help of the various others teachers and administrators.

"Quit whining, its unbecoming of an assistant teacher to whine as such," commented her colleague Chifuyu Omirua. Maya held Chifuyu in high regard, and who wouldn't? A champion of the Mondo Grosso Tournament, one of the best if not the best IS pilots ever, and regarded as the IS Academy's best IS instructor, Chifuyu oozed confidence and power. Of course, Maya knew a side of Chifuyu that others rarely ever saw, but when at work, she was the cold, stern instructor everyone expected.

"Oh come on, we haven't been able to go out and relax even after being done for the day," Maya countered. "Well, at least we are down to the last two of Class 1, then we're free until the first day of classes. How about we head to the bar to get a drink?"

"Sounds fine-great, turns out my brother is in Class 1, hopefully the idiot reads the IS manual that was sent to him," Chifuyu stated, looking at the admittance papers for her younger brother Ichika Ormirua. Chifuyu suspected but couldn't confirm that Tabane had a hand in Ichika becoming bonded to an IS, and as such couldn't hold anything against him. That said, Chifuyu would've preferred if her brother never had gotten involved in the world of IS, especially after the 2nd Mondo Grosso incident in Germany…

"You don't sound too enthused about having your brother in your class," Maya noted. "Is it because you think he will be an idiot with all the girls around? Or maybe its because you're a broc-UGH! PLEASE STOP, I CAN'T BREATHE!" The reason for Maya's sudden lack of ability to breath; Chifuyu's hands around her neck, cutting off the greenette's supply of air.

"I'm not a brocon you pervert!" Chifuyu shouted, before releasing Maya. "No, my problem is that my brother, despite all his good intentions, is a thick headed idiot that will probably somehow create a following of girls that want nothing more than to be his girlfriend. In other words, it will the girls I fear will be idiots."

"I see," Maya said, rubbing her neck. She glanced at the admittance form in front of her. It was surprisingly from Italy, which she hadn't been expecting. While most European nations already had their own IS representatives, Italy was the last of the major European nations to have an IS rep, and it impacted the image of Italy negatively. For a supposed major country in Europe to be outdone by nations like Albania and Kosovo, it didn't give Italy any form of credence in the political theatre.

Maya continued to read the admittance form, she noticed something, which she thought was a fluke.

 _IS Representative's Name: Jaune Arc_

 _Gender: Male_

 _Country of origin: Italy_

 _Country of Representation: Italy_

 _Age: 17 years old_

 _D.O.B.: 7/13/10_

 _IS Suit Designation: Praetorian_

 _Is Class: Defensive CQC Suit_

Maya looked at the first page of the form again, blinking twice at the gender. Male. The Italian IS Rep was male; this would have a huge impact on the IS community. For one, Italy would finally have a IS Rep of their own. Second, that representative would be the 2nd IS operator to be a male. Third, both of the male IS pilots would be trained by Chifuyu, so it would cause several rumors to explode once knowledge got out.

"Maya, is something wrong?" Chifuyu asked, concerned about the silence that the room had.

"Umm, Chifuyu, did you hear anything about a second male IS rep?" Maya asked. Chifuyu was glad she didn't have anything to drink, because she would've probably have choked in surprise at the question.

"No, I was only informed about my brother Ichika, why?"

"Well, because Italy's representative is a male by the name of Jaune Arc," Maya informed Chifuyu. "I haven't read his bio, and by the date of the admittance stamp, it appears to be last minute, but yeah, apparently there is a second male who is able to use an IS suit."

"Well damn, I wasn't expecting that," Chifuyu commented. "What does his bio say?" Maya quickly flipped to the bio page and began skimming it, a very useful ability to have when one had to do a ton of paperwork quickly.

"Not a whole lot, other than he had average grades for his academic history, he had some training in swordsmanship yet no history of him in any tournaments. It says he became bonded to the Praetorian by accident, although it doesn't specify how. In addition, he is being rushed to learn how to operate an IS, so I guess that means this Jaune Arc is in the same boat as your brother."

"Does it say anything about his personality?" Chifuyu asked. Maya scanned the page once again, chuckling at the description painted of Jaune Arc.

"According to this he is 'polite and well-meaning young man, however he is naïve, not technical savy, and has a case of foot-in-mouth syndrome," Maya explained to Chifuyu. "Oh dear, it said he once commented, after putting on his suit for the Praetorian and after remembering that almost all IS units are commanded by women, 'whoever designed the IS was quite a pervert, for why else would anyone have women in skin tight leather?'."

Chifuyu snickered, knowing full well that Tabane hadn't designed the IS to be female-user only, but it did fit the eccentric engineer. She bet that once Tabane heard that, the engineer would cry in a corner. It would serve her for the shit she had put Chifuyu through.

"And what else?" Chifuyu inquired.

"Also, he seems to be clueless to women in general, the only one he doesn't react like, and I quote, 'a bumbling blonde idiot' being Dr. Adessi. Wait, Dr. Adessi, that name sounds familiar, where have I heard that before?"

Chifuyu stopped herself from shivering at the mention of Dr. Adessi. Evelyn Adessi was a renowned engineer, but what made her terrifying was her cold pragmatic approach to problems. She didn't waste time trying to work around problems in advance; if a problem came up she would come up with a solution and move on. Most notably was an incident in Italy's early foray into IS R&D where early model trainers that didn't rely on a proper IS core had the unfortunate tendency to become what air force pilots called yard darts. Her method to solving the problem; observe what went wrong with high speed cameras, then design a solution. It took her two tries, and in the result two test pilots, but she solved the trainer's problems.

But it wasn't just her approach that disturbed Chifuyu; it was her seemingly zealous hatred of Tabane. While Chifuyu could sympathize with many engineer's envy towards the prodigy, Evelyn Adessi didn't just envy Tabane, she outright hated her. On multiple times, Dr. Adessi was caught mentioning Tabane as 'a pathetic excuse of a scientist' or one time 'a child who builds something, only to then ignore it for some new project'. Which confused Chifuyu, because as far as she knew, Dr. Adessi never had any contact with Tabane.

"I see," Chifuyu commented. "Well, let's finish these two papers. I guess we will have to see how these two dorks do here." Maya chuckled.

"Yeah, from how you describe your brother and how this form describes Mr. Arc, I can say Class 1 will be in for quite a shock."

* * *

"Gah, this machine is utterly BROKEN!" Jaune gasped out. "Seriously, whoever thought anyone needed this much power was insane!"

"The machine isn't broken; merely your perspective of what power is, that is broken," Dr. Adessi said calmly over the intercom. It was the maiden test of the _Praetorian_ , and while Jaune had managed to log in a total of twenty hours in the simulator (spread across two and a half days), he thought that was a gross over estimation of what it could do; but to his complete shock, the _Praetorian_ was every bit as good as the simulator's projected, and then some.

Jaune never felt such a greater movement of field, nor felt as empowered as he did now. Every thought and action was amplified so much so that Jaune was feeling a bit numb. Jaune was impressed by the _Praetorian_. The simulator didn't do it justice.

The _Praetorian_ Jaune learned was meant to be a defensive fighter, exploiting the enemy's weakness while shrugging off attacks with mighty armor. To accomplish this, the _Praetorian_ was outfitted with advance sensory equipment inside the helmet, ranging from thermal imaging, ballistic radar, anti-stealth systems, and finally a ECM pod on the back to defeat enemy attempts to gleam information of the _Praetorian_ in battle. The armor and sensors were supposed to make up for the lack of a durable shield, but much to everyone's shock the _Praetorian_ actually boasted a decent shield, but that paled in comparison to what Crocea Mors gave the _Praetorian_.

For reasons the researchers were trying and failing to explain, Crocea Mors somehow diverted energy from the shield and became enveloped in narrow band of concentrated plasma. When Jaune asked what the researchers meant, Vera simply said 'it's now an energy sword', and Jaune smiled; seriously, what was more kick ass than an energy sword? Nothing, that's what!

"Mr. Arc, if you could stop, maneuvering the _Praetorian_ like it's a sports car, can we focus back on the objective at hand?" Dr. Adessi asked.

"Y-yes Dr. Adessi!" Jaune replied.

"Good, then I want you to complete the obstacle course and then head over to the weapons testing area," Dr. Adessi commanded.

"Of course, right away!" Jaune answered. Dr. Adessi sighed; the testing was both exceeding her expectations and failing to hit the mark at the same time.

Dr. Adessi had grown tired over the past days with the results of the simulator testing. Jaune, despite having some self-admitted out of date training, wasn't using the _Praetorian_ efficiently, with a base efficiency rating on the simulators of 69%. Now, compared to the competitors of the Mondo Grosso that across the board had BERs between 76% to 85%, then there was the great outlier being Chifuyu of a staggering 98% BER. Jaune simply would be outclassed, and in turn impact Italy's image negatively.

However, this maiden test was blowing those expectations out of the water. The Praetorian's energy shields were somehow 80% stronger than anticipated, the sensory equipment was operating 10% faster and more efficiently. And then there was the _Praetorian's_ Crocea Mors that somehow managed to divert power from the shields and encompassed the blade in plasma, something not even planned. As such, Jaune's BER in the Praetorian jumped from 69% to 74%, still below average but recoverable.

"That boy's a diamond in the rough, and I don't mean being able to pilot an IS," Dr. Alexander commented. "It's like he is somehow…empowering the _Praetorian_ to go above expectations.

"I concur, but what makes him special?" Dr. Adessi asked. "On the surface, he seems an otherwise ordinary high school student…that was carrying a sword and shield, which were made of osmium."

"Perhaps with data we collect from him using the Praetorian coupled with any data were can gather on that Japanese boy that can pilot an IS, we can figure out what's going on," Alexander said, taking a sip of expresso. "We're in the dark as it is, so we must gather as much info as we can before we make hypotheses on what Jaune is doing to make the Praetorian run better than expected."

"I agree, but unfortunately, we won't have that much control over Jaune in the IS Academy, which he will be leaving for in a week," Dr. Adessi pointed out bitterly. "We can keep him under our control here, but there, he could be influenced by outside parties, which wouldn't be good for our research."

"That's a problem, however, I think you are giving the boy a bit too much credit at the same time," Alexander said. "He seems to be very easily manipulated, which is for the most part bad for us, but we can simply manipulate him when he gives his reports to us that he must be wary of those around him. We can play on his emotions and beliefs to our benefit."

"Huh, that's true, plus we can always threaten him with having him arrested if he does something we don't approve of, considering he did end up in a secure military facility." Dr. Adessi began to smirk. Sometimes Alexander was a pain to deal with, but when it was called for, he could deliver the solution to a problem she couldn't.

"Well, we can…well now, it appears that Jaune completed the obstacle course in five seconds over the estimated completion time, looks like he lost time when he had to make sudden course changes."

"That can be fixed, hopefully Jaune doesn't muck up the weapon testing," Dr. Adessi said, looking over Jaune's results in the obstacle course. _He would have to improve, lest my plans are going to fail,_ Dr. Adessi thought. _Oh well, hopefully he manages to learn a bit at the IS Academy while remembering who his master is_.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Ah the second chapter and already out with the first chapter- What witchcraft and heresy is this?- Well actually,** **it's just me waiting to get the second chapter out before posting the story** **-BLAM- Such Heresy shall not be allowed!**

 **Ahem, forgive Commissar Moran, he just slipped on the trigger while holding his bolter. Please excuse him while I take him back to his place. -** _ **Punts the Commissar back into the Horus Hersey just in time for the Battle of Terra**_ **\- Please forgive me for that interruption.**

 **Now, onto this chapter; Yes, Jaune's IS suit is a melee focus IS. I know they're bit silly considering a RAILGUN would be better than a sword 99 out of a 100 times, but hey, it's IS, there is energy shields, systems able to track incoming projectiles, etc. If you wondering what it looks like in terms of coloring and what Crocea Mors sword and shield look like, look up Roman legionnaire or Praetorian, that's the general design of the Praetorian.**

 **So how does it compare to the other IS suits we see? Well, because it lacks any range weapon atm, the IS suits** _ **Blue**_ _ **Tears**_ **,** _ **Schwarze**_ _ **Regen**_ **,** _ **Shenlong**_ **, and the** _ **Raphael**_ _ **Revive**_ _ **Custom**_ _ **II**_ **are in consequential in comparing the Praetorian. The closest comparisons to melee focus IS suits would be the IS suits** _ **Byakushi**_ **(Ichika's IS) and** _ **Akatsubaki**_ **(Houki's IS).**

 **The** _ **Praetorian**_ **lacks the shield integrity that either suits has, but makes up for this by having more armor and giving the pilot's body actually protection instead of relying on a shield to prevent bodily injury. In addition, it has more sesnors and an ECM pod to give better situational awareness than either while also hampering enemy sensors. But as it stands, the** _ **Akatsubaki**_ **trumps the** _ **Praetorian**_ **due to the simple fact that 1) it's in the hands of Houki, 2) is has more offensive capability, and 3) the** _ **Akatsubaki**_ **can engage multiple enemies at once.**

 **Compared to the** _ **Byakushi**_ **the** _ **Praetorian**_ **fares a bit better. While having weaker shields does mean that the** _ **Byakushi**_ **could best the** _ **Praetorian**_ **, due to Jaune's eventual transition to a more defensive fighter, it counters Ichika's all or nothing offensive fighting style. Also, the shield of Crocea Mors will be able to counter a strike of the unawaken** _ **Byakushi**_ **well enough. But one the** _ **Byakushi**_ **gets the fold out armor, the** _ **Praetorian**_ **falls behind again. Oh well, just means Dr. Adessi will have to make some modifications to the** _ **Praetorian**_ **.**

 **One thing to note is that Jaune's aura and semblance are affecting the** _ **Praetorian**_ **. This explains how Jaune seemingly has an energy blade and his shields are stronger than predicted, but it's not all he can do. Eventually, Jaune's semblance will greatly affect the** _ **Praetorian**_ **, giving the** _ **Praetorian**_ **its one-off ability. Why Jaune's aura and semblance are affecting the** _ **Praetorian**_ **will remain a secret, but for now, let's just say that Jaune and** _ **Praetorian**_ **share a common goal; to be a defender of the people.**

 **Finally before I leave, the next chapter will be based around episode 1 of season 1 of the anime, with a few changes here and there. And to explain away the language barrier, Jaune can speak Italian and English, although they go by different names on Remnant, and the IS Academy, due to it be a multi-national institute, the spoken language is English. Why is simple; more countries around the world speak English than any other Language. Sure, Chinese may have more speakers, but that's because China has the most people, and even then, there are many variants of Chinese. English meanwhile is pretty much the same across the globe, with minor differences here and there.**

 **So until next time guys, please read, review, follow, favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Welcome to the IS Academy

* * *

Jaune groaned, rubbing his eyes as he awoke. He felt, quite frankly, like utter shit, like he was stuffed into a box that was in a freezer. As he glanced around, he kind of realized he was, if you considered being flown from Italy to Japan in a cargo plane an apt comparison to his metaphor.

The last couple of days before leaving for the IS Academy were filled with Jaune practicing in the Praetorian, to the extent that his EBR went from 74% to 75%, and reading that massive as IS manual that was required reading. Sadly for him, the blonde couldn't understand all the underlying mechanics nor any of the scientific terms that were sprinkled in like a kid going crazy on the syrup. The general overview however was easily understood, so he kind of hoped that his idea of skipping the tech talk and focusing on the overviews wouldn't bite him in the ass.

In addition, Dr. Adessi's assistant Vera tried to cram in some etiquette lessons for Jaune, but thanks to his seven sisters and his slightly overbearing mother, it was a 'light' refresher course. Of course, it was a good thing Vera also made some of the lessons focused on dealing with people from foreign countries, to include topics not to talk about lightly and oddly enough how to recognize the various swear words each language had. Strange; despite being on a different world, they still had words dedicated to insulting someone until they felt like crap.

As it was, Jaune had spent today mostly trying to sleep through the flight, with his latest nap consuming two hours. He wondered how much longer he had before they were back on the ground. He saw a flight engineer walking over to him.

"Hey young man, we're ten minutes from the academy! I suggest you gather your belongings and get them ready, because we aren't waiting to fly back to Rome and if you forget anything we aren't turning around to return it!" the flight engineer shouted over the din of the engine. Jaune nodded, quite thankful he didn't have much.

"Alright, good to know!" Jaune said. He was slightly curious about how he wasn't throwing up, but hey, not going to think too much on it and jinx himself. Quickly checking around where he had been sitting, Jaune gathered his duffle bag, which contained everything that he had; his clothes, his papers to confirm who he was, the IS manual, and the only recreational book that Vera lent him, a copy of 'The Prince', written by some guy named Machiavelli. Overall, the book wasn't bad, but god was it boring compared to the comics Jaune preferred to peruse.

"We are beginning the landing approach; please fasten yourself, as crosswinds have picked up!" the pilot said through the plane's intercom. Jaune sat down and quickly fasten himself, and as the plane began to shake as it lowered and was hit with the crosswinds, he felt his stomach lurch. _Oh Oum, seriously, this right now?_ However, Jaune felt himself jolt at the massive cargo plane lurch forward as it touched down. It began to gracefully slow down, and Jaune felt his stomach calm down.

Jaune would've expected to feel something, perhaps anticipation, as he had arrived at the IS Academy where for the next four years (except during the various breaks) he would be living. But instead, he felt melancholy, as various thoughts and memories made themselves apparent. _I'm alone in a new world, being forced into being a test pilot, I have no friends, family, or even acquaintances to familiarize myself with. Gods this sucks…_

"Alright Mr. Arc, we're here, so you can exit the plane and meet with the Academy Instructor who is waiting for you. The scientists and engineers at the Academy will unload the Praetorian and get it to the Academy," the flight engineer informed Jaune.

"Very well, hopefully you don't have to make that many flights out this way. Thanks for your guys' support," Jaune thanked the flight engineer, extending his hand. The Flight engineer shook his head, but still took the handshake.

"Kid, your about to enter the closest thing to hell that is disguised as heaven on Earth, and you're thanking us for the flight," The Flight engineer chuckled. "God speed to you Mr. Arc, and know that men all around the world both envy and pity you." Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Huh, why's that?" Jaune asked. The flight engineer looked around before quietly whispering to Jaune.

"Because you're about to be surrounded by a flood of athletic teenage girls who are going through puberty; it looks like Heaven because you will be literally one of two men in the entire school, but in reality, all the girls will have varying emotions and all are trained to use war machines that rendered conventional warfare all but impossible."

Jaune felt everything shift in his gut; he hadn't considered what the girls would be like! He knew how his sisters were like, especially around their 'time of the month' ( _whatever the hell that was_ , Jaune thought to himself. _Seriously, what the fuck was it_?) and he didn't want to know what it would be like to deal with girls that had literal deus ex machina to wage battle with!

"Ehehe, is it too late for me to be sent to prison?" Jaune asked, his mind spinning horrible scenario after scenario, almost all ending with him being killed by a goddess incarnate. The Flight engineer barked, laughing at the young man's response.

"No can do; Dr. Adessi has ensured that you are to be Italy's IS Representative, and therefore are immune to prison, unless you commit treason," the Flight engineer informed him. The older man took pity on the younger man, giving him some choice words. "Don't worry too much, just keep on the girls' good side, don't give them a reason to hate you, and you should do fine. All you need is confidence!"

Jaune remembered being given similar advice from his father, and began to think; _how likely was it that two older men would steer him wrong with the same advice. It was preposterous, that's what!_ Smiling at the engineer, Jaune nodded.

"Thanks for the advice sir," Jaune said, before grabbing his stuff and making his way out of the plane. Unbeknownst to Jaune, the Flight Engineer turned to the pilot, who was shaking his head.

"Don, you know that advice will make the young man's life hell, right?"

"Well, my father gave me that same advice and I learned my lesson; old men are vicious, lying, spiteful pricks who will take any opportunity to get some entertainment value out of the misfortunes of others," Don the flight engineer said. The pilot sighed.

"Don, you really need to get some help; confidence doesn't and will never equate to going up to the girl you like and saying it was you who knocked up her younger sister." Don glared at the pilot.

"Shut up Frank, no one asked for your opinion."

* * *

Maya was fiddling with the hem of her dress, waiting for the last foreign student to arrive; Jaune Arc. Maya wondered if the admittance papers were accurate about Jaune's personality, and how it would play out. _If he speaks without thought, then if he says anything about the IS suits with the girls around, oh dear, I hope for his sake he doesn't say anything_ , Maya thought to herself.

"Erm, are you the instructor from the IS Academy?" Maya was ripped from her thoughts from a young masculine voice. Turning to the source, Maya looked at the young blond man wearing blue jeans and a brown hoodie over an orange shirt. Recognizing the person from the admittance papers as Jaune Arc, Maya nodded.

"Yes I am, although technically I'm the assistant instructor for your class," Maya stated. "And you must be Jaune Arc, Italy's IS representative."

"I guess I am," Jaune Arc answered uneasily, rubbing his head. Maya wondered why Jaune would be uneasy; people would (and had) kill to be an IS pilot, much less an IS representative. "So am I just following you to the Academy?" Maya nodded.

"Yes, although thankfully this airfield was made to facilitate the needs of foreign IS reps, candidates, and students, as well as the engineering and scientific groups that build, maintain, and upgrade the various IS suits, so the airfield is near the monorail that will take us directly to the Academy. Don't worry, we won't be taking too long, as the main thing will be getting you to the Academy and giving you an orientation."

"Ah, okay then, I can follow easily enough," Jaune muttered quietly. He then gazed closely at Maya. "Um, not to be rude, but aren't you a bit young to be an instructor?"

"Well, I was a former representative candidate for Japan, and I do have a considerable amount of time operating an IS, but for your information I'm 16." Maya had to resist the urge to giggle at the dumbfounded look that enveloped Jaune's face.

"Bwuah, really?! This sucks, I'm 17 and am being owned by someone younger than me. Damn it, if I wanted to be manipulated by people younger than me I could've stayed home."

"Heh, got younger siblings I guess?" Maya inquired, not at all offended by Jaune's statement or choice of words (actually, she found it kind of funny).

"Yeah, on top of my 3 older sisters I have 3 younger ones and my twin sister," Jaune said, becoming depressed at the thought of his sisters wondering what happened to him. Not only had he gotten a forgery to go to Beacon, he also left home without informing anyone. No note, no last good byes, nothing.

"Oh my," Maya said, and somehow Jaune felt as though she was invoking some deity in a way. "That must've been stressful at times."

"It was, but I wouldn't trade it for anything," Jaune replied, remembering all the good times; such as the time where the family had that massive picnic near the lake, the holiday celebrations, the times where his sisters forced him into a dress…actually, he could've lived without that last one, and knowing his sisters, they probably had pictures. He prayed that they never showed those photos to anyone.

"I see, you kind of remind me of my co-worker, if she wasn't so serious all the time," Maya said, thinking of Chifuyu. She knew the older woman loved her brother Ichika, but it was probably buried behind her professional façade that she had up always.

Jaune and Maya got to the monorail station, and quickly boarded it. Maya was checking something on her phone, leaving Jaune to gaze out the window. The view was…calming, at least to Jaune. He never been near the ocean, so seeing the pristine blue waters was really calming. But as they near the Academy, Jaune noted that the Academy rested upon a developed island, with architecture rivaling those found in Vale or even Beacon. It was impressive, and Jaune began to feel incredibly small right now.

"Quite the view huh?" Maya commented to Jaune. "I remember the first time I arrived at the Academy, feeling both incredibly happy that I made it and being absolutely terrified at the prospect of making a fool of myself. So whatever you're feeling, don't worry too much."

"Yeah, but how often does that advice work?" Jaune asked more to himself than Maya. "I'm glad to be here," -and he was, better than being in prison with nothing to do but waste away- "but at the same time I can't help but think of how it can go terribly wrong." Maya smiled lightly at Jaune.

"Thinking it will go wrong will only cause a positive feedback cycle that will ensure it will go wrong," Maya said. "But just think, you have teachers, instructors, and even your own classmates to turn to if you need help."

"Thanks for that," Jaune replied earnestly. He felt the train car starting to slow down. Well, better face this then.

* * *

"It's over, it's finally over!" Jaune moaned. "Seriously, what ego-centric engineer would design such a massive academy?"

Across dimensions, in the spirit world of Remnant, Luc Raphael the third, famous for designing Beacon Academy, sneeze.

Jaune had spent close to five hours (along with twenty other students, all girls) being giving a tour of the Academy's facilities, given locker numbers, dorm room keys, academy uniforms, standard text books, and getting their school computer ID and password set up, before being given their classroom information and finally being released to head to their dorm rooms. All that time, Jaune felt as though all the eyes of his fellow students were glued onto him, like some rare specimen at a zoo. _Maybe I am rare, considering I'm one of two men in a field dominated by women_ , Jaune mused quietly as he counted off the dorm numbers, trying to get to dorm room 435, his dorm room.

 _C'mon, 427, 429, seriously, why are there over 500 dorm rooms if each room has room for 2 and there's like, what, 460 IS cores? 433, 435, wait, 435?_ Jaune paused, pulled out his entrance papers, which had his dorm room just below the standard ID information, which confirmed he was looking for 435.

"Yes, success!" Jaune said, pumping his fist in the air. Pulling out his key, Jaune put it into the lock and twisted, only to find that it was already unlocked. _Huh, seems like my roommate has made themselves at home already,_ Jaune thought as he walked in. He could hear the shower running, but he had confidence that it was Ichicka, _because what idiot would think to shove the two males anywhere other than being roommates?_

Jaune walked in and saw that the room was similar to a middle class hotel room; two double size beds with a night table in between, carpeted floors, a large window with the bulky ass AC unit, and finally two pairs of desk opposite of the beds. There were cabinets that Jaune figured were for storing clothes, so Jaune went for the one obviously not in use, if the small trinkets on the cabinet near the window was an indicator.

Jaune wondered what Ichika would be like; Jaune seriously hoped he wasn't a dick like that one big bruiser back at Beacon looked to be. If anything, Jaune wished Ichika was a laid back but somewhat smart guy; Jaune wasn't going to bullshit himself and say he didn't want a smart roommate, it would surely make homework easier.

Jaune had finished unpacking his bags and was getting ready to continue reading 'The Prince' when he heard something stop. _Wait, what the fuck was that door I passed to get to my bed? Oh fuck, please let it not be…_ Jaune stopped as he heard a door open, not daring to turn around.

"Oh my," a high cultured young woman's voice started. "Moving in without announcing yourself, why I could misinter-"Jaune turned at the voice stopped. His sight turned to the owner of the voice. It was a white girl, roughly a foot shorter than him, with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and, since the towel that barely covered her lady parts to attest to, decently endowed.

It was at this moment Jaune Arc knew, he'd fucked up.

The girl, quickly shaking herself from the shock of seeing a man in her room, went for the nearest hard object, this being a black marble bookend that was on her desk and chucking it at Jaune. Whether the fact the girl couldn't put her all into throwing the bookend due to having to hold the towel to maintain her modesty is up for debate, but Jaune would attest later, he didn't think so. This was because while Jaune waved his book to cover his face, the girl's throw wasn't high enough to hit his face; no, but it was high enough to hit a, again debatable, more sensitive spot.

"My balls!" gasp Jaune as he collapsed to the floor, clutching family jewels. He writhed in pain, cursing in his mind, but when he regained some semblance of control, Jaune turned to see the girl about to whack him with a mallet.

"Wait, wait one minute!" Jaune begged, and thankfully the girl appeared willingly to listen.

"Now why should I?" the girl demanded. "For all I know, you could be some vagrant mongrel who would take advantage of me!"

"Check the papers on the bed!" Jaune quickly answered. "It will show you that I'm supposed to be here!"

"For what?!" the girl once again demanded. "This is the IS academy, and last I check, there isn't a single IS user that is a male!" Jaune wanted to face palm; _why did fate like fucking with him?!_

"If you don't believe me, check the paper, it will say that I'm Jaune Arc," Jaune explained. "It will also show that room 435 is my dorm room, but why they would shove a woman and man in the same room is beyond me. Also, I'm technically the second guy to be a IS operator; some guy named Ichika Orimura beat me to it."

He could see the girl doubt his words, but, without taking her eyes off him, reached over and grabbed the papers off his bed. Glancing at it, the girl looked for any discrepancy to make her believe it was a forgery, but after a minute she was forced to relent.

"Fine, it appears you are right," the girl said stiffly. "You, Jaune Arc, will wait in the bathroom until I'm dressed, understood?"

"Perfectly," Jaune replied. Getting up gingerly, Jaune walked into the bathroom and shut the door, allowing the girl to get dress. Jaune knew the drill all too well; what brother didn't when you had seven sisters? It wasn't too long until a knock was on the door.

"You can come out now," the girl announced. Jaune turned around and open the door. The girl was now dressed in the school uniform (largely white with a bit of red and black) that seemed to have black frills added for a personal touch, and she now had a blue headband in her hair.

"So Jaune Arc, considering the circumstance to wit we find ourselves in, until such time as those in power rectify this clear mistake, I guess we should at the least find a way to get along," the girl stated. "So to start, my name is Cecilia Alcott, the British IS Representative Candidate, with the personal IS _Blue_ _Tears_." Jaune nodded.

"I'm Jaune Arc, Italy's IS Representative with the IS _Praetorian_ ," Jaune said. Cecilia raised an eyebrow.

"Italy finally got a IS rep, and it's you?" Cecilia asked. "How odd. But that is for another time, we must discuss living arrangements."

For the next hour, Cecilia laid out the ground work for the living arrangements. First, she would shower first as she demanded on having hot water, with them taking their clothes into the bathroom so they can dress/undress in the bathroom. Next, she insisted that Jaune not stay up past 11:30 at night, because she required at least eight hours of sleep and she wouldn't tolerate him keeping her up. Finally, after dealing with other minor things, she forced the duty of keeping the room clean onto Jaune.

In all honesty, Jaune couldn't care, because he already had been doing things like this since practically forever. He always took showers last, which meant he was fine with cold showers, he never could stay up past eleven due to the stress of his sisters wearing him out fast, and as for cleaning, well, he was screwed either way, his sisters either pulled the cute or elder card on him.

"So do you have anything you would like to add?" Cecilia asked.

"Not really, sounds pretty good to me," Jaune stated. He glanced at the clock and saw to his dismay that it was now nearly nine in the evening. He wilted; he hadn't eaten anything for over eighteen hours, and without a doubt, the cafeteria would be close. To make it worse, he was tired from the flight and the orientation.

"If you don't mind, I'm hitting the hay," Jaune informed Cecilia. "The flight from Italy to here and the five-hour orientation are finally catching up on me. I believe classes are tomorrow, so if you could, wake me up two hours before, okay?"

"What, get yourself up!" Cecilia snobbishly stated. Jaune sighed as he rolled under his covers.

"There isn't any clock in the world that has been able to wake me up when I sleep," Jaune stated coolly, and it was actually true. Living in his household meant that Jaune developed a new form of sleep, one where mere noise wouldn't be able to wake him up. So how did he usually get up; simple, being drugged out of bed by his sisters or having a sister jump up on him.

"Hmpph, fine, but only because it's the first day," Cecilia replied. "Night Jaune."

"Night Cecilia."

* * *

Evelyn Adessi rubbed her tired eyes, glancing at the clock to see it was four in the morning. She knew that Jaune Arc and the _Praetorian_ had made it to the IS Academy just fine, so the reason for her being awake was a mystery to all but her. But she had vital work to do.

"And with that, _Angel's Prayer_ shall now be active," Adessi muttered to herself. She smirked, knowing that while on the surface the Praetorian would appear weak compared to many other 3rd-generation IS frames, it was the subtle details that she failed to inform Jaune of that made it dangerous.

Early on Adessi knew she couldn't predict the development of IS frame, as the IS cores gave unparalleled power and allowed for previously impossible designs. Therefore, she decided to not predict and try to counter what other countries were up to, but adapt and weaken their strengths. Thus she built the Adaptive Defense System, or the ADS, a hugely complex system that would 'learn' how to better protect the _Praetorian_ from the numerous forms of weaponry.

The way it did this was during battle, the ADS would gather knowledge on enemy weapons' capabilities, and learned what worked against them and what didn't. After the battle, it would essentially patch the IS core to improve the defenses of the _Praetorian_ to where future battles those same weapons would be far less effective. If a serious upgrade package was required (such as a new weapons platform went up against the _Praetorian_ ), it would send a message to the engineers and they could easily build the required upgrade, send it to Japan, and retrofit the _Praetorian_ to incorporate it.

Alas, while Adessi was confident in the strength of the ADS to nullify the power of other IS frames in repetitive battle and the hardness of the _Praetorian's_ formidable physical and energy armor, there was one factor that she couldn't account for; Jaune Arc. For all the power the Praetorian might have, it would be useless if the operator was a coward, so Adessi, in secret from the engineers but with the approval of the Italian Government, began work on _Angel's Prayer_.

Adessi knew that if Angel's Prayer was found out, she could face criminal charges by the entire IS Academy for skirting around ethics and the Alaskan Treaty, but she didn't care. It was prerogative that Jaune Arc wielded the _Praetorian_ to its fullest, and the _Angel's Prayer_ was the best solution.

In essence, _Angel's Prayer_ was an equipment to indoctrinate the operator by various methods. The first was where the name came from, infrasound. These sound waves were noted for being able to give people hallucinations, cause feelings of anxiety, and do physical damage, but Adessi along with some scientist were able to get the infrasound to motivate the pilot in a way to take risks they normally wouldn't take, whether it was nullifying systems involved with fear, anxiety, and terror, cause hallucinations of their love ones in dangers, or even making them believe they need to move to survive, even if the _Praetorian_ could take the hit.

The second was more mundane; electrodes were outfitted in the suit to cause other pleasure or pain in the operator as determined by the _Angel's Prayer_. Pain would be given if the operator refused to take the subtle hints to either carry on or escape, while pleasure was given when certain actions deemed advantageous were carried out by the Operator.

The final method involved the _Angel's Prayer_ to increase the _Praetorian's_ potential to ensure it could achieve what was needed. It does this by analyzing the situation, what the pilot wanted to do, what the enemy was most likely to do, and then rerouting power to the systems that were deemed critical to winning the engagement. If defense systems are in need of more power to resist an attack, power from the other systems would be diverted to increasing the shields, and this applied similarly to other systems.

Adessi sighed; truly the _Angel's Prayer_ was an impressive piece of technology, but too many weak-willed liberals would cry out in anger at it. They would preach that it robbed the users of themselves, and in a way they would be right. But it was the greatest example of adaption in Adessi's mind; why try and train someone to not show fear when you could subtly remove said fear, or give them motivation to carry on fighting when most would break?

But while she knew it would apply only to the _Praetorian_ , as there wasn't anything as powerful as an IS core to operate the _Angel's Prayer_ , if the masses knew of it, they would want to punish her. The thought of a machine, designed by a scientist on the behest of the government, that could indoctrinate people to take action in ways deemed acceptable by the machine was no better than enslaving them.

Adessi smirked as she saw the computer monitor in front of her popped up with a message saying that the _Angel's Prayer_ was ready for use. Taking a glance at her desk, in particular a picture of a younger her with a smiling man in an air force officer's uniform, she was reminded of the reason she would agree to using such an unethical piece of technology.

"To hell with everyone, my goals will not be stopped," Adessi muttered, before pulling out a flask and taking a swig. "You shall be avenged."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, the reception was unexpected but I'm pleased so many of you guys are enjoying the story! But there have been a few complaints about some points, so let's get to the main points brought up in the reviews.**

 **-The Praetorian being a 3.5-Generation IS Frame: This was one of the most common points brought up. People were saying that either the Praetorian wasn't a 3.5-4** **th** **generation IS Frame, or that it should at best be 2** **nd** **to 3** **rd** **generation due to Italy lagging behind. Here I shall discuss both points separately.**

 **The first two chapters failed to point out why the Praetorian is a 3.5 generation frame. With this chapter, I try and rectify that, but perhaps it would be better to say that the Praetorian is a 3.25, more advance than standard 3** **rd** **-gen frames, but not as advance or incorporating the tech of a 3.5-frame. With its stronger than average defenses, the inclusion of the ADS and of the Angel's Prayer, it now is at least on par or better than 3** **rd** **-gen IS frames. I shouldn't have said anything about it being 4** **th** **gen, as they don't appear until later in the story, and for that I apologize.**

 **As for Italy only deserving a 2** **nd** **or 3** **rd** **generation IS frame, here's the thing; Italy actually has a history of having brilliant scientists and having designs for war gear that is actually pretty impressive. Sure, they may not have had an IS operator until Jaune, but they wouldn't have been sitting around and falling behind. They would've designing, thinking, and trying to come up with IS frames to compete with their neighbors, and while some would've been busts, they would've been also analyzing the results of IS frames in events like the Mondo Grosso and the ranked battles as the IS Academy.**

 **That being said, Italy couldn't be like France and mass produce whatever IS frame they develop; Italy isn't super industrial as other European nations, and so they couldn't use their industrial capacity to meet up with their scientific capacity.**

 **-Jaune's Aura: 'New Universe Returns', this is in response to your inquiry in your review. No, the IS core doesn't awaken Jaune's aura; it was awoken as the result of sustaining the head injury and his aura awakening to keep him alive. Other than that, your points were valid.**

 **Well, that's it to cover for now. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, remember to read, review, follow, favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: First Day of Class

* * *

Cecilia Alcott wasn't one to wake up early (she very much enjoyed her beauty rest, thank you very much), but hearing her alarm on her desk beeping incessantly forced her to get up and shut it off. Taking a moment to stretch, she saw true to his word Jaune was still out cold, seemingly unfazed by the alarm. Cecilia glanced at the alarm and saw she had at least thirty minutes before she had to wake Jaune up as per his request.

She quickly took a shower, reflecting on her new dorm mate. Jaune was a typical blonde scrawny high-schooler that somehow became Italy's IS representative. He didn't really argue with her setting up the agreement to the dorm, yet he also stood his ground and used his brain to avoid further injury when she came out of the shower yesterday. Maybe he was the kind of guy who didn't like unnecessary conflict and just wanted things to go smoothly.

That said, Jaune being an IS representative was more than shocking. Unlike her, who was a IS representative candidate and thus had many people who could take the position as Britain's IS representative, Jaune was uncontested and meant he only had to worry about his standing amongst other IS representatives. She wondered what his IS the _Praetorian_ was capable of. Was it melee or ranged? Did it have any features that made it truly unique, or did it used tried and true features? It was a conundrum that she couldn't wait to figure out.

Turning the shower off and quickly drying before changing into her clothes, Cecilia was shocked to see that Jaune was still out. Glancing at her alarm clock, she saw it was time to wake him up.

"Wake up Mr. Arc, it's time to get up," Cecilia said, shaking him lightly. However, Jaune was unmoved and remained deep asleep. She tried again.

"Mr. Arc, wake up now," Cecilia ordered, her voice louder and more stern. She also shook him more roughly. Yet again, Jaune was like a log, asleep without a care for the outside world. Cecilia scowled, annoyed at the young man.

"JAUNE ARC, WAKE UP YOU IMBECILE!" Cecilia shouted, much to the chagrin off their neighbors.

"Shut up Cecilia, you'll wake the entire dorm up!" came the shout of some female student who was awoken by her shouting.

However, much to Cecilia's mounting ire, Jaune was still out. She pondered on means to wake up, before glancing at her marble bookend. She glanced back to Jaune, and then back again to the black marble bookend, a rather terrifying idea forming. Jaune was sleeping on his back, snoozing away, which meant one thing; he was totally exposed to Cecilia's plan.

She grabbed the bookend before standing up near where Jaune's hip was, held the bookend over his 'private area', and simply let go. It had the intended effect.

"OH MY GOD!" Jaune shouted, gasping in pain as the bookend made its presence known once more on his balls. Curling up in pain, he glanced at Cecilia, who had a smirk on her face. "Why did you drop that bookend on my balls?!"

"My, my, didn't you say you wanted me to wake you up?" Cecilia 'innocently' asked. "I tried three times calmly, but you didn't get up. So I had to resort to this." In actuality, she wasn't completely honest, she had pondered simply rolling him off the bed, but this option seemed more 'appropriate', and fun.

"Why didn't you simply roll me out of bed?" Jaune asked. "My sisters do that, or they jump all over me, or yank me out of bed! They never once resorted to dropping something on my balls!" Jaune decided to not mention the one time his sisters did the water-bucket trick; he would never live down the embarrassment of that incident.

"Wait, what sisters, you never told me you had sisters," Cecilia shot off. Jaune paused, before realizing that he only told Maya about them yesterday.

"Oh, yeah, technically, I have seven sisters," Jaune answered. "But that doesn't explain why you didn't roll me out of bed instead of resorting to that blasted bookend!"

Cecilia hadn't heard the last statement, her mind trying to comprehend the fact that Jaune had seven sisters! _Seven sisters, my god, maybe that's why he didn't argue with me last night; he always had his sisters to listen to. Wait, if he has seven sisters, and assuming he the only boy in his family, my lord, his parents must've had a ton of…_ At this point, Cecilia's brain fried, her thoughts going to the lewd lessons that her maid and best friend Chelsea gave her when she had her first period. She began blushing up a storm, not realizing that Jaune wasn't in her head.

"Um, Cecilia, you alright?" Jaune asked, waving a hand at the now blushed blanked face blonde. When she didn't respond to his question nor follow his hand, he sighed. This wasn't the first time a girl had been liked this when he mentioned he had seven sisters, but still he couldn't understand what was so confusing about it. Surely there were other families that had a ton of kids, right?

It's clear to say, Jaune had never contemplated the significance of having a large family.

"Well, might as well take a shower and get ready for the day," Jaune muttered, grabbing his school uniform and heading for the showers, leaving a still blushing Cecilia standing stupefied in-between the beds.

* * *

"This is the classroom I go to," Jaune muttered, a few minutes before class started. He was standing outside Class 1, thinking about what happened after he got out of the shower. Thankfully Cecilia was back to normal, although she seemed content on ignoring him. He spent the next hour and half getting breakfast and gathering his materials for class, only to notice all the eyes that were on him.

 _Seriously, did these girls not seen a boy before today?!_ Jaune hated being front and center of attention, it never went well for him. While he wanted to be a huntsman and be a hero to the eyes of the people, he quite liked being not the center of attention. He didn't want to be held on a pedestal or stared at like an exotic animal, but yet here he was, with the eyes of almost every girl on him!

"I should just come to terms with it," Jaune muttered once more to himself, entering the classroom. When he got inside, he noticed Maya was standing behind the front desk, gazing at the other students before turning her attention towards him.

"Oh, hello Mr. Arc, I trust you got plenty of rest for today?" Maya asked him. Jaune nodded, refraining from mentioning his rude awakening. "That's good. Now, take a seat next to Ms. Alcott, next to the window, five rows down."

Turning his attention, Jaune did see that Cecilia was indeed in the same classroom. Nodding to Maya (and trying to tune out the attention of all the other girls in the classroom), Jaune made his way to the fifth window seat. Sitting down and putting his stuff away, he contemplated turning to Cecilia and try and talk to her, but the sudden gasp as the classroom door open caused Jaune to shift his attention to the door.

Standing in the doorway was a young man with black hair and red eyes, with a slim yet athletic build. While the girls seemed to pay attention to the new guy, Jaune pitied the poor guy, who surely must be Ichika Orimura, who seemed completely like a fish out of water. Jaune turned his attention to gazing out the window, at least until class started.

Maya, after checking that all the desks had an occupant in them, began the class.

"Congratulations for making it to this school, I am your first year home-room sub-teacher, Ms. Maya Yamada." Jaune saw as Maya faltered at the lack of any response from anyone, before getting ahold of herself.

"Starting today, you are all students of the IS Academy. As you know, this is a boarding school; students are together during and after school hours, so I hope you'll get along and help each other, making the next three years enjoyable. So um, now onto self-introductions, um lets go by numerical order on the class role. So first off, Cecilia Alcott, please introduce yourself."

Cecilia got up and began speaking.

"I am Cecilia Alcott, the British IS representative Candidate. I enjoy polo and gardening. It's a pleasure to meet you all." Jaune wanted to add in she enjoyed using her bookend as a weapon of mass pain, but refrained. Cecilia sat down, and Maya went to the next name.

"Jaune Arc." Jaune heard his name, thinking of one thing; _fuck me._ Standing up (and getting the attention of all the girls save Cecilia and Maya), Jaune Arc cleared his throat so he didn't sound horrible.

"I am Jaune Arc, the IS Representative for Italy. I enjoy reading, and I have seven sisters. I hope we get along as friends."

Jaune was about to sit down, but he noticed how the room was completely silent, and he decided to see the other students. Cecilia and Maya, having already known, didn't appear unfazed (though Cecilia did have a tint of red on her cheeks). The other students were however left completely stupefied, half with hollowed eyes (like Ichika), while the other half had suddenly mad gleams in their eyes.

Terrified for his own life, Jaune hastily sat down, glad once Maya continued down the roster. Jaune paid attention to the other students, noting how none of the introductions has induced that same level of attention as his had so far. But that was about to change with the next name Maya called.

"Ichika Orimura."

When Maya called on Ichika Orimura, Jaune noticed Ichika had glanced at someone to his left. Setting his gaze to who was left of Ichika, Jaune noted a girl with long purple hair tied off in a ponytail look away. Jaune pondered what their relationship was. _Probably childhood friends, given how Ichika now seems depressed,_ Jaune thought to himself.

"Um, Ichika Orimura?" Maya called his name again. Ichikia, obviously not paying attention to the introduction of class, panicked.

"Here!" Ichika said, only for the class to giggle at his panicked response. Jaune frowned but understood why it had happened; after all it happened way too many times to himself. However, as Ichika began his introduction, Jaune noted the overwhelming aura that several girls had when they stared at him. _Jesus, his situation is worse than mine_ , Jaune thought to himself. He barely registered Ichika's introduction so great was the girls' attention on him.

Jaune wondered why the black hair teen was getting so much attention, was there something he was missing. As though to answer his question, a woman that looked to be about as old as Jaune's oldest sister came in, wearing all black with black hair and red eyes. Ichika had finished his introduction, only to leave the entire class in shock, _what had he said to cause that reaction_ , before the aforementioned woman whacked him on the head, sending Ichika down to his desk.

Ichika looked up to see the offender, and Jaune was remarkable unsurprised by his reaction.

"SIS?!" Again, the woman in question reacted, only this time by punching down on Ichika's brain. Jaune winced; _damn, she give big sis Francine a run for her money in the terror apartment_.

"You will call me Ms. Orimura at school," the woman instructed Ichika. Maya seemed please to see Ms. Orimura back.

"Ms. Orimura you're back; does that mean the meeting is over?" Maya asked.

"That's right Ms. Yamada, I'm sorry for having you introduce my class for me" Ms. Orimura confirmed while also thanking Ms. Yamada, who Jaune had to remind himself was only 16.

"Alright class, I'm your homeroom class teacher, Miss Chifuyu Orimura, and it's my job to train you well enough to stand on your own feet in one year." Before the words could sink in, the entire class (save for Jaune, Ichika, Cecilia, and that girl that Ichika was looking at early) erupted with excitement.

"You're the reason I came here!"

"Let me marry you Ms. Orimura!"

"I would sacrifice 71 virgins for you!"

Jaune's jaw dropped; _what the hell are wrong with these young women?!_ And apparently, Ms. Orimura was on a similar mind.

"It's amazing how many loose nuts come to this Academy every year; why do I always get the crazy ones?" she muttered to herself.

Jaune watched as Ichika failed to address Ms. Orimura correctly before she continued what she was talking about before the class's…'enthusiastic' gretting.

"You have 6 months to memorize all of the IS technical data, followed by 2 weeks of practical training to master basic maneuvers. Regardless of if you understand, say yes ma'am!"

"Yes ma'am!" the entire class choruses. Jaune grievously wondered how horrible her lessons would be.

* * *

As it turned out, Ms. Yamada handled most of the lesson, quickly detailing what the IS frames were and a couple of things about their uses and restrictions. Jaune had been bored, as he had been quickly briefed on this information prior to leaving Italy and he had read the IS manuals that all were given, which covered the topics that were being covered. That said, he was now annoyed, and that was cause due to what was looking into Class 1's window and doorways because, ever so conveniently, it was lunch time.

"My god, those are the only two male users of the IS."

"I thought there was only one from Japan."

"Nah, turns out the blonde guy was a recent find that went under the RADAR so to speak from Italy."

"I think the black haired one looks better."

"Pfft, bet the blonde one's gay."

"Better prepare to draw up some yaoi scene!"

 _Yeah, somehow, in the span of perhaps two days if we include yesterday the entire schools knows of the two dudes, and they already are thinking I'm gay!_ Jaune sighed, wondering why people thought that way of him. He could explain it; sure he wasn't the overly masculine build of some guys he knew, but c'mon, what about him screamed gay?! And whatever yaoi was, given the girl's perverted smirk, he wouldn't ever want to know what it was.

"Ugh, I wonder when all the hype will die down?"

"Probably not for a while," Cecilia commented. "You two men are like new born pandas; everyone is going to want to see, even if it isn't anything worth looking at." Jaune noted the barbed insult.

"Well, the sooner it dies down the better; right now I could swear some of them are planning on drugging me and making me their man slave," Jaune shot back. "Done with being the slave around women thank you very much."

"Something to do with your seven sisters?" Cecilia asked, and for once Jaune didn't notice any hidden malice.

"Yeah, one twin, three younger, and three older sisters seemingly made it their life's mission to either coddle, smother, or dominate me," Jaune replied. "Seriously, add in mom and I was the only guy at home, and I don't know why everything required my assistance."

Cecilia frowned for a moment, her mind still baffled by the fact Jaune had seven sisters, but now it had something to ponder on.

"What about your dad?"

"What about him?" Jaune asked. Cecilia decided to extrapolate.

"Wasn't your father there when you were growing up?" Jaune nodded.

"Yeah, but when I was fourteen, but dad died while hunting," Jaune answered. "Even then though, my father didn't really do much when he was home; he was so tired from his job." Jaune didn't blame his father; keeping the Grimm's numbers under a semblance of control was a nightmare, and it took its toll on those who fought them.

"That's…I'm sorry for your loss," Cecilia said after a moment. She was going to label Jaune's father as another failed man, but from how Jaune seemed solemn at the lack of his father, so she refrained from judging his father for now.

"Thank you, but it's been over three years now, I'm largely over it, though I can't say the same for my mom and sisters," Jaune said. "I know my mom cries when she thinks she's alone, and my younger sisters practically glued themselves to me after dad died."

"Okay," Cecilia said, growing slightly envious that Jaune's father seemed to be loved by his family while her own father- god how it left a nasty taste in her mouth- was an entitled brat whose death was the source of many of her own hardships. _Thanks father_ , she thought bitterly. She glanced at Jaune's lunch, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, what are you eating?" While she was eating her cucumber sandwiches, Jaune's meal seemed to be a bowl of noodles and meat sauce.

"Oh, its Bolognese sauce over tagliatelle pasta, my mom makes this semi-frequently," Jaune confirmed, and indeed, it appeared some things seem to transcend the barriers of other worlds. His mother's cooking was very much like Italian cuisine, with a few exceptions and with different names. Also, Jaune enjoyed cooking; when the older sisters were burdened with homework and the younger ones were too scatter brained to focus on cooking, he and his sister learned to cook, though he was supremely better.

 _How does one burn water without the burner being on_ , Jaune wondered before noticing Cecilia still looking at him.

"Um, is there something on your mind?" Jaune inquired. Cecilia shrugged.

"Mind if I try a bit of that; I'll get you a cucumber sandwich in exchange." Jaune glanced at the sandwich, not finding it truly appealing, but he also knew to decline would be rude. _Damn you choices, why art thou so cruel?!_

"Sure," Jaune said, trying to mask his apprehension, shuffling his bowl of mostly complete Bolognese sauce over pasta to Cecilia, before she handed him a sandwich. The two both took a bite at the same time.

 _My goodness, this is wonderful_ , Cecilia thought to herself. _The sauce is hearty and the noodles are just right. I wonder when he got around to making this?_ What she didn't know was that Jaune hadn't cooked it; he noted that they had some in the Cafeteria during breakfast (who would serve that at breakfast he wondered) and simply dished it for his lunch.

 _My god, this is worse that Joan's cooking!_ Jaune was stupefied by how god awful this sandwich was. The bread was practically stale, the cucumbers were cold, hard, and tasteless, but somehow it tasted like vinegar. _Did she mix cucumbers with pickles?!_

"So how did you like the sauce?" Jaune asked, whilst covertly chucking the rest of the sandwich out the window.

"It was rather good, perhaps not as good as a Shepard's pie, but still pretty good," Cecilia commented. "How was the sandwich?"

"It was fine," Jaune lied. "But it wouldn't be what I would make, I like my sandwiches to have some meat in them."

"Oh good," Cecilia replied. Thankfully for Jaune, the lunch period was coming to a close as the bell rung throughout the school, with classes- Jaune felt the sudden impact of a clipboard on the side of his head.

"Oh, what the hell?!" Jaune shouted, wincing and wondering how a clipboard could be so painful. He looked out the window and he paled; standing on the ground level with Ms. Orimura, and in her hair was the cucumber sandwich. She shouted to him, and he was thankful only he could hear it.

"See me after class Mr. Arc," she commanded. Jaune gulped. He done did fucked up.

"Is that my sandwich in her hair Jaune?!" Jaune suddenly felt extreme killing intent behind him, and as he turned around, he saw the demon known only as Cecilia, for no one would dare insult her British culinary skills!

Jaune was denied a chance to lie his ass off, for she felt her grip him by the collar and proceeded to bash him into his desk. _At least it is not as painful as the time I said the dress did make mom look fat_ , Jaune thought to himself.

* * *

Okay, does anyone have any questions at all?" Ms. Yamada asked. It had been over two hours since Jaune's 'training' by Cecilia with his desk, and they were going over the very complicated equations that went into operating the IS frame's Active Protection System. Jaune struggled, not being that great at math, but thankfully he got the general gist of it all. The APS was the shielding system that IS used to protect the user. It prevents low to moderate power attacks from killing the operator, but it didn't go into full power mode unless the IS determines the threat to be too great, in which case it dumps all of its powers behind the shield to protect the user. This however would weaken the IS frame's capabilities further on, which was why most fights focused on not using power consuming attacks early on in the fight, as if the IS frame's power went too low and it detected a high-power attack inbound, the Absolute defense system would kick in and consume all the remaining power in the frame, leading to the IS frame being knocked out so to speak.

"Do you have any questions Orimura?" Ms. Yamada asked Ichika, who Jaune could tell was growing more and more frustrated by the lesson. _Did he not read the manual_ , Jaune thought before shaking that idea from his mind. _Nah, no one would be that stupid_.

Finally, after being gently pressed by Yamada, Ichika finally broke.

"Ms. Yamada, I don't understand any of it!" Ms. Yamada was shocked by this revelation.

"What, not any of it. Is there anyone who doesn't understand what we've covered so far?"

Silence, complete and utter silence. No one raised their hand, no one asked a question, no so much as moved at that question. Jaune felt bad for Ichika he really did, but he understood the lesson (except the complicated math bits, but hey, he was a fighter not a mathematician!).

"Mr. Orimura, did you read the reference manual before school started?" Ms. Orimura asked, while walking over to in front of Ichika.

"Are you talking about that big one?" At Ichika's response Jaune felt a strange plummenting feeling in his gut. _Oh god, don't tell me…_

"That's right; didn't it say require reading?" Ms. Orimura asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, but I accidently threw it away-" Ms. Orimura didn't wait for Ichika to finish before whacking him with the clipboard (the same one used to inflict pain onto Jaune Arc after lunch).

"Fine, I'll get you a new copy and I expect you to have the whole thing memorize by the end of the week," Ms. Orimura stated.

"What, that big book in a week?!" Ichika cried out in shock. Ms. Orimura glanced just over her shoulder, and Jaune could feel the killing intent from the glance.

"What did I just say?"

"Yes ma'am," Ichika said, defeated by that way Ms. Orimura asked the question.

With that, the lesson continued, and Jaune felt irritation not only from Ms. Orimura but also Cecilia as well being directed at Ichika. _Why would Cecilia have a problem with Ichika_ , Jaune thought. _Does she hate slackers or fools?_ Whatever the case, he figured it would be figured out soon enough, and true to his guess, when it came time for recess, Jaune noticed Cecilia walking over to Ichika. _Now I can figure out what Cecilia's problem with Ichika is!_ However, it was not to be when he felt someone tugging at his ear.

"Oh Mr. Arc, I figure now would be a good time to have our…chat as it were," Ms. Orimura said, while dragging Jaune out of the classroom. _Curses, now I can't figure out what her problem is!_ It didn't take long for Ms. Orimura to drag him out before looking at him.

"So Mr. Arc, why did you throw that pickle sandwich out the window onto me?" Ms. Orimura asked. Jaune's first thoughts weren't the obvious excuses, but rather one that he had suspected when he tasted that god awful sandwich.

"My god, it was really pickles and not cucumbers?" Jaune said aloud, before realizing that he said his thoughts out loud. "Oh, I'm sorry Ms. Orimura, but um…"

"Well, I'm waiting, and the longer I wait, the worse the punishment shall be," Ms. Orimura said sadistically. Jaune shivered in slight fear; definitely worse than Francine!

"Well, Cecilia offered one of her sandwiches and I tasted it. It was quite honestly one of the worse sandwiches I ever ate, but I didn't want to be rude so I quietly threw it out the window before Cecilia could notice I wasn't eating it," Jaune answered honestly. Ms. Orimura glared at Jaune for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"Heh, so you weren't aiming for me were you?"

"No ma'am," Jaune confirmed. Jaune waited for her to speak, keeping his eyes from drifting to looking over her body; _the last thing I need to do is to be thought of as a perv by my own teacher_. He didn't have to wait too long as Ms. Orimura spoke after a minute of thought.

"Alright Mr. Arc, here's what's going to happen; you are, as punishment, forced to help the kitchen cleaning staff after dinner for the month and do whatever the staff wants you to do. I don't care if they ask you to buy them whatever they want with your money; you will do it. If I hear that you've haven't been doing as you were ordered, trust me, I'll make your life hell. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am!" Jaune shouted, not liking the demonic aura around her towards the end.

"Then go back inside, your punishments start after dinner tonight," Ms. Orimura said, before turning to enter the classroom. Jaune followed, silently glad that the punishment wasn't too bad; he did work as a dish cleaner at a diner in his hometown. It could've been worse, he could've been forced to clean the entire school nightly for a month. The kitchens surely aren't that large.

That said, Jaune was upset that whatever occurred between Cecilia and Ichika had concluded; he wanted to see what the big deal was. Oh well, he'll have to figure that out later. But for now, he had one more period of lessons, then dinner, then the start of his punishment. He sighed; _surely the kitchens won't be a disaster to clean._

* * *

 **Author's Note: hello Everyone, Panzer4life here, and here's chapter 4. Somethings I want to cover because of reviews, so let's get to them.**

 **-Aura: I know people have different ideas on what Aura exactly does, and RWBY does a bad job explaining it because at one moment a person can withstand a great deal of physical injury (ala Yang getting hit by the Paladin through a 4 foot concrete pillar which Deathbattle has shown must have at least a force of 1400 tons of force), and yet Scarlet from team SSSN can be defeated via a blow to the balls. So yeah, my opinion on the subject; aura protects and keeps damage to a minimum, similar to the shields on an IS; the more dangerous, the more aura will protect. So yes, he can get hurt via bookend to the balls. Enough about aura atm.**

 **-Will Jaune return to Remnant?: I'm planning on it, though not how perhaps you guys might be expecting.**

 **-Who is Dr. Adessi talking about?: Ah, well because it will be revealed, that person would be her ex-husband. Why he needs avenging will not be discussed here, as it's a bit of a spoiler to Adessi's personality and motives.**

 **-Jaune's IS frame's focus on defense over mobility: I know people think mobility trumps all, and it can, in the right circumstances. This is what prompted tank designers post WW2 to focus on mobility over armor as HEAT was thought to be able to defeat any armor anyone could come up with. But this parallels with Jaune's Is over other's IS; everyone though firepower could overcome armor, so they focus on mobility and firepower over defense, while his goes for defense and will eventually bring in firepower to par. Jaune's IS could be likened to a Chieftain MBT while everyone else's are like T-54s, Leopard 1s, etc.**

 **-Will Jaune's IS have a 2** **nd** **form or will his aura cause it to evolve?: His aura will interact with the IS core, which will alter the frame. Will it have a true 2** **nd** **form, probably not. Will it have an improvement from what it is currently, definitely. Also, the engineers in Italy will be upgrading the** _ **Praetorian**_ **over time, to eventually have a suitable and reliable ranged attack option.**

 **-Jaune being 6'1": I didn't realize this, but yeah, that would be shocking; Ichika is 5'7" according to the wiki and the tallest in the series, but Jaune dwarfs him. Damn, then again, I'm 6'8" and while I do get asked about my height, it isn't shocking.**

 **-Angel's Prayer: The reason I picked this name is because I was thinking of a suitable name for something that compels people to do things they wouldn't normally do, and I was reminded of all the people who claimed to be influenced by Angels, whether to do good or evil. Also, Adessi won't activate it just yet; at the moment she doesn't have much reason to use it as Jaune is in no real danger and thus the** _ **Praetorian**_ **is in no danger of being destroyed.**

 **That's it for now, the next chapter will deal with the Classroom Fiasco, so see you guys then! Until then, please read, review, follow, favorite, and I'll see you guys next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

* * *

"Oh god my arms feel like jelly," Jaune groaned as he awoke the next day, still tired due to the crap he had to endure when he arrived for his punishment in the kitchens. It turned out that the kitchen staff hadn't exactly cleaned every area. So Jaune, that night, had to perform the equivalent kitchen gymnastics, cleaning under every heavy duty machinery. It left his arms feeling like jelly stretching to reach the untouched spots.

"You deserved it Arc," Cecilia shot off. Jaune face-palmed; of course Cecilia was still pissed about what he done with her sandwich. So of course she was giving him evil glares all of last night and now this morning.

"Not my fault you can't make a decent sandwich," Jaune grumbled. Thankfully Cecilia didn't hear that snide remark, so he wasn't facing her wrath. That said, Jaune was feeling like today would make a metric shit storm on his already beaten easy cruise on life. He felt this way because of the smirk that was on Ms. Orimura's face.

"Alright class, the Inter-class Tournament is in two weeks," Ms. Orimura stated. "Because of this, a class representative must be chosen. Are there any volunteers or suggestions for the class rep?"

Jaune wisely (in his opinion), kept his hand down. _There isn't going to be anyone that will vote for me, because that would be stupid_ , Jaune thought. _If Italy is so looked down upon, then no one will want me because they will think I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Plus, there is Ichika to choose, and since he is the brother of Ms. Orimura who the class adores, he will likely be chosen._

And indeed, everything went as Jaune predicted, as a girl raised her hand.

"I'd like to nominate Orimura for class representative!" This was all that was needed to let lose the floodgates.

"I think this is a great idea!" shouted another girl. Jaune watched with an amused smirk, silently glad that everything seemed to be going his way. It wouldn't last long however.

"Well, is there anyone else; if not he will be elected without a vote." Ms. Orimura asked. Ichika tried to refute, only for Cecilia to speak up.

"I do not approve of this!" Cecilia shouted. "This type of selection is entirely unacceptable! It would be shameful for a boy to be our class representative! You can't seriously expect that I, Cecilia Alcott, have to deal with that sort of humiliation for an entire year! And living in a country with such underveloped culture is already unbearable!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow; _wonder what she would think of the frontier towns back in Remnant, they practically have no culture other than how to survive against the Grimm with no walls_. Ichika turned to face Cecilia, highly annoyed by Cecilia's outburst.

"It's not like your country has much to brag about either," Ichika refuted. "How many times has England won the World's Worst cuisine award?"

"We English have many delicious dishes!" Cecilia argued. Jaune couldn't help himself.

"Yeah, pickle sandwiches are _simply delightful_ ," Jaune sarcastically snickered out. Cecilia turned to glare at him.

"You have no right to speak, not after you chucked it on Ms. Orimura yesterday!" Cecilia barked out, and the entire class turned to Jaune. _Well shit, I shouldn't have said anything_.

"Seriously Jaune, you did that to my sis-Ouch! What the heck- Gah! I mean, you did that to Ms. Orimura?!" Ichika yelled at Jaune, having his head whacked twice by Ms. Orimura. "I should kick your ass! Ouch! C'mon, to be fair he kind of deserves a beat down!" Ichika was cut off when Ms. Orimura glared at him.

"And he is; he's having to clean the kitchens for a month," Ms. Orimura said, getting the class to not glare at Jaune with the intensity of seven suns for a moment. "However, since there is beef between you, Ms. Alcott, and Mr. Arc, how about this; at the end of the week we'll hold a match, and whoever wins becomes Class representative."

"Hold on, I don't particularly want that position," Jaune replied, only to receive a clipboard in the face.

"Mr. Arc, you may not want the position, but I'm certain that Ms. Alcott and Mr. Orimura feel the need to knock you down a peg," Ms. Orimura said off handedly. "Besides, consider it extra practice in your IS."

The bell rang, ending the class session and leaving Jaune sweating. _Well shit, I'm fucked_.

* * *

Dr. Adessi was tapping away at her keyboard, reviewing the Mk. II upgrade kit for the _Praetorian_. Besides improving existing systems and adding some software to improve combat capabilities, the Scorpio was being installed. A long range artillery piece that used multiple types of warheads all guided by laser and GPS systems, the Scorpio is the solution the engineers came up with for the _Praetorian's_ lack of range combat. While slower firing than most ranged weapons 3rd Generation IS suits uses, the Scorpio was tested and found to be able to knock out harden concrete bunkers under 6 meters of earth.

However, Dr. Adessi wasn't too concerned about the addition of long range artillery to the _Praetorian_ ; it was designed to take more hits than the enemy and weather the storm. Dr. Adessi was more concerned with the few readings that had passed in the last six days.

Turns out Jaune had logged in twelve hours of flight time recently, and the recording software showed that Jaune was practicing against highly mobile targets. Based on the voice logs from the _Praetorian_ indicated that Jaune was facing a match against two IS, a Ms. Alcott and Mr. Orimura. Evelyn clicked her tongue; she hate Chifuyu Orimura, and no doubt her brother shared that same self-righteous bullshit that his older sister had in spades.

Ever since the White Knight incident, Evelyn had tracked every lead as to who was the pilot of that IS, all because of that treacherous day.

~flashback~

" _Hun, what's going on?" a younger Evelyn asked. Her face was smooth and lit up like the sun, and she didn't have the wrinkles she would later have._

" _I'm sorry, but an emergency has come up and the Minister of Defense has requested that I report to the Cavour for a mission briefing," a man roughly her age in the gray officer's uniform._

" _Is there anything you can tell me?" Evelyn asked, knowing her husband's duties could prevent him from telling her anything. HE sighed._

" _Eve, turn the news on," he said wearily before putting his cap on and leaving. Evelyn, confused by her husband's statement, went to her TV and turned it on, only for a news reporter to already in mid report._

" _-and the identity of the hacker is of yet unknown, all we know is that over two thousand nuclear ICBMS from various nations are heading on course to Japan." The reporter was off the coast of Japan, with various JSDF, JASDF, and JMSDF units trying to evacuate civilians off the Japanese mainland. Evelyn felt a pang of fear rang through her; the stories of her parents about the fears of the Cold War going hot were going through her head._

" _Hold, on, what the?" The cameraman, as the reporter began questioning something, turned the camera to somewhere in the sky, as a white figure began intercepting the various ICBMs. Eveyln had been enraptured at the figure, glad at first that the ICBMs were being intercepted and not allowed to detonate._

 _However, as the news broadcast continued for hours, Evelyn's respect for the 'white knight' as the reporter called the white figure in the sky died when it was reported that NATO, the Chinese, and the Russians were committing several carrier air groups and 5_ _th_ _gen fighters to take out this new weapon system, and the reporter showed how the 'white knight' vicously cut down the intercepting fighters before the broadcast went dark._

 _Evelyn felt panic; was her husband okay? Was the Cavour, the aircraft carrier her husband was to report to, still safe. The hours passed by, and still, she hadn't heard a word. Finally, three days after the appearance of the 'white knight', Evelyn was sitting in her living room, wondering the fate of her husband._

 _The doorbell rang out, and Evelyn felt her heart plummet; it couldn't be. She walked to the front door, only to see her husband standing in front of her. She felt relief; he was still alive! But his face was hollowed._

" _Hun, what's wrong?" Evelyn asked, grabbing his wrist. "Hun, is everything okay?" He remained silent, until he walked into the living room, moving to the little corner that he had dedicated to his forefathers that fought for Italy, going all the way back to his five times great grandfather who served in the Italian army in WW1._

" _Eve, it's all over," he said, picking up a picture of his father, rubbing its picture frame._

" _Jean, what do you mean?" Evelyn asked. Jean turned to look at her, and she saw the tears pouring out of his eyes, the ones he must've held back until he no longer could._

" _Um, its confidential, what happened, but...the minister of defense, the Prime minister, and the top ranking generals and admiral have decided to hold me accountable, as I'm the highest surviving officer in the Italian armed forces during the op," Jean said shakily. "The trial is for the end of the week."_

" _Jean, it couldn't have been your fault," Evelyn said, going up and hugging him from behind. "It couldn't be, you loved and respected the men under your command. Surely it's not your fault."_

" _I know," Jean said quietly. "Can you…please make me some tea?" Evelyn nodded, leaving her husband momentarily to make tea. As she set the water to boil, she heard something that would haunt her to this day._

' _ **Click, BANG!'**_ _Evelyn dropped the cup she was holding and rushed back into the living room, only to see Jean on the ground, blood pooling around what little remained of his head, his service pistol in his right hand and the model Tornado that his father had helped him make when he was younger in his left hand. Evelyn had cried out._

" _JEAN!"_

 _~flashback ends~_

"Dr. Adessi, Mr. Coltello is here," Vera informed her via her phone. Eveyln shook out of that horrible memory, before letting what Vera said sink in. Straitening herself, Evelyn took a breath.

"Let him in," Evelyn commanded. As the door opened, Adessi smirked at the tall figure that came in. Mr. Coltello was in his upper fifties, with gray hair, grayish-blue eyes, and he wore a black long coat over his business suit.

"It's good to see you Dr. Adessi," Coltello greeted. Evelyn smirked.

"Indeed it is," she replied. "So tell me, how goes your end of the deal?" Mr. Coltello chuckled.

"The fools in parliament are eager for a chance to expand Italy's influence by any means, as they see it as a way to make more money. So funding for the plan is well underway. As far as the military is concerned, several former soldiers forced into retiring to make way for the empowered women have agreed to become our iron fist. So our plan is well underway."

"So the Legion Accord is going through?" Evelyn asked. Mr. Coltello nodded.

"Yes, how is the progress going for you?"

"Decent, the Praetorian finally has a suitable operator, Angel's Prayer has been uploaded to it, and the first Strazha is nearing completion, we will just need an operator for it." Mr. Coltello grinned.

"I have the perfect candidate for the Strazha," he said, handing Evelyn a folder. She glimpsed through it, her smirk turning into a smile at the candidate. She closed it before turning to face Coltello.

"So, how did you find him?"

"He was picked up from a young age by my associates," Coltello answered. "As such, he is the perfect little soldier. However, he is a bit…bloodthirsty as it is, but for what we have in mind, that won't be an issue."

"No it won't" Evelyn agreed. "Is there anything else you need; I have to see how the Praetorian and its operator are doing as far as efficiency is concerned."

"Not at all, however I want to warn you, Phantom Task is looking for our little soldier, so keep him quiet until the last moment."

"I understand, I'll let you know when the Strazha is complete," Evelyn replied. Mr. Coltello nodded, leaving the room. Dr. Adessi turned back to her computer, and began reviewing Jaune's training. _Let's hope Jaune becomes what I need him to be_ , Evelyn thought as she watched Jaune take down a target quickly while making use of his shield effectively.

* * *

Jaune grunted, he had just been hit by a practice shell from one of the mobile dummies that the Academy had from behind. While the energy shield had dampened the damage, it still had hurt, and Jaune felt a slight burn in his right hand. Jaune quickly turned and raised his shield, only to be forced to dodge to his right to avoid the second dummy's fire.

He had spent the last the last five days training, getting ready for his match against Cecilia and Ichika. While he didn't want to become the class representative, he also didn't want to get beaten by Ichika, whose IS was unknown but going to be personal, and Cecilia. The British blonde had rubbed it in his face that her IS was a 3rd generation Sniper IS frame, favoring long range attacks, and how that she was a prodigy.

Thus Jaune was training as much as he could, in-between classes, homework, and his detention in the kitchens. Thus he was always tired, and it tended to leave him frustrated. However, he felt like he was improving, though by how much he wasn't sure.

Focusing once more on the dummies, Jaune had them both in front of him, and he rushed forward. Gripping his sword, Jaune aimed for the dummy to his right.

 _Raise your shield and cover your left_. The thought came into his head, and Jaune, thinking it was a good idea, went with it. With his shield raised, Jaune focused on thrusting the gladius blade, pouring all his might forward. The blade was enveloped in a glow before it cut into the dummy's center, finishing it off.

 _Swing to the left and raise your blade, striking down on the head_. Again, Jaune complied, twisting his body to the left and raising the gladius upward. However, he went to high, and before he could strike the dummy got one last hit in. The hit wasn't hard, but Jaune felt the burn in his hand again until he smites the dummy across the chest. The pain lessens and Jaune lets out a relieved breath.

"Well, maybe I have a chance now," Jaune stated, removing his helmet. "End practice session five." The command was received and transmitted to the Academy's practice system, ending the practice he had done.

As Jaune left the practice grounds, he didn't know he was observed.

* * *

"This is Mr. Arc's fifth practice session against the Level 2 dummies," Maya said. She had been requested by Chifuyu to come to the Academy's Command and Control Room.

"Yes, but did you notice his EBR increased from 69% to 70% in just fifteen hours now?" Chifuyu asked. Maya looked and had noticed the steady growth in Jaune's EBR. Such growth was remarkable rare, with the average of 0.5% increase for every twenty hours of practice. Some had faster, being 0.75% for twenty hours, but a solid percent increase in just fifteen hours, a quarter less time for double the average increase? It was rather unheard of.

"Odd, these results should've come after forty hours of training, not fifteen," Maya remarked. "Do you think he's a prodigy?"

"No, but I did notice his fighting style shift radically after the first session," Chifuyu said. She brought up a video of the first session and the second session. "Maya, tell me if you see the difference."

Maya watched both sessions, and she quickly realized what the difference was.

"He seems more defensive during the second session," Maya muttered. Chifuyu nodded.

"Yeah, he nearly was knocked out of the practice during the first bout due to leaving a ton of openings for the dummies to hit him with," Chifuyu supplied. "Yet he became highly defensive, tanking behind that shield of his while rigorously advancing forward. It wasn't the unorganized amateurish attempts that he had in the first session, but it wasn't anything to write home about."

"But look at this latest session; he only got hit when the dummies separated by at least 60 degrees, all of his attacks were very concentrated and powerful, and he rarely backed away, almost always dodging to his left or right. Such improvement usually is only done in that amount of time with a mentor."

"Do you think the Italians added an onboard system to aid in pilot training?" Maya asked. Chifuyu shook her head.

"Perhaps to learn the basic operating systems, but not one to train someone to become semi-proficient in actual combat; in fact no IS does," Chifuyu said. "The problem is that to adjust a person's fighting style requires an outside perspective otherwise they'll make the same mistakes and never improve. No, something else is happening."

Maya nodded; while a computer could 'grow' to fix itself or errors or point them out, a human almost always needed someone to point out their errors. As she was thinking about how Jaune could improve, she noticed a slight detail.

"Chifuyu, did you notice that Jaune's right hand shakes briefly after every hit he takes?" Chifuyu leaned towards the monitor, and as she watched she clicked her tongue.

"Could just be an involuntary twitch as the result of pain," Chifuyu offered. "Those practice dummies may not be as strong as an actual IS, but they still hurt when hit; kind of like a paintball gun is to a firearm."

Maya nodded yet she couldn't shake the feeling there was more to it than a simple twitch. However, she heard Chifuyu yawn.

"Alright, it's getting late and we have that match tomorrow to over watch, so let's get some rest," Chifuyu ordered. Maya nodded and got up, heading to follow Chifuyu, not catching the _Praetorian_ shimmering in a golden glow. However, Chifuyu had, and she had narrowed her eyes; what has caused the golden glow?

* * *

 **Author's Note: I was going to do the three-way fight between Jaune, Cecilia, and Ichika this chapter, but I felt like I'd be rushing it if I did it in this one, so next chapter will have the fight. But onto some points the review brought up.**

 **-Jaune's relations with Ichika: As you have read, there relations will be tested, but eventually they will be bros, probably around the time Charles/Charlotte comes in.**

 **-Tabane bash: As 'Dark Durian' pointed out, Tabane did launch a shit ton of nukes at Japan to show off the White Knight, and it seems odd that despite the disabling of 5 carriers the world seemed to have swept it under the rug; I mean they acknowledge it, but seriously, there would've been a far greater reprisal if they could find the one responsible for the incident.**

 **Thus we get to see Evelyn's and Jean's relationship, or rather its end. Why Jean killed himself is similar to Cpt. Butler McVay III of the USS Indianapolis. More will be detailed in the future, but trust me, it's on a similar if not larger scale to what happen to Cpt. Butler. So expect the bash-hammer to be present, but it will be regulated.**

 **\- Dr. Adessi's actions and Mr. Coltello: A few of you seem that you can understand why Dr. Adessi is doing what she is doing but don't approve of it, and I like that! But as you see, she went from simple revenge to near-zealous actions, as the Legion Protocol will cause problems down the line. As for what the Strazha is, trust me, it may not be as individual powerful as an IS, but what it lacks in power, it makes up for in one factor; numbers.**

 **Mr. Coltello is going to be a major antagonist of this story, as he operates behind the scenes, manipulating leaders and men into doing his bidding. What his goals are won't be revealed for a while but just know; he isn't working alone.**

 **That's it for the reviews, and thank you guys so much for supporting this story. As always, please read, review, favorite, and follow, and I'll catch you guys next time.**

 **P.S.: I'm going to try and do a massive Halloween release for my various stories, so the next chapter will be Halloween or the day after. I'm going to try and get as much as I can get done for this and my other stories, so if you guys wonder what's taking me so long, this is why.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Praetorian vs. Blue Tears vs. Byakushiki

* * *

"The fight starts in ten minutes, all fighters please suit up by then," Chifuyu Orimura said over the PA system. Jaune said; he had just gotten his rather tight fitting latex suit (mostly silver with yellow trim), and was heading to the launch hangar.

Walking to it, he didn't see anyone in the hallways to his hangar, leaving him slightly off put. Of course he hadn't made any friends due to his training, detention, and Cecilia blurting out what happened with the pickle sandwich, but still, he no doubt believed that Ichika and Cecilia would have their own supporters. It weighed on his mind, having no one backing him up except those blackmailing him to be here, but could you call that back-up?

Stepping into the hangar, Jaune was pleasantly surprised to see Maya in the hangar, looking at the _Praetorian_.

"My, I've never seen an IS this physically armored before," Maya said upon seeing Jaune enter. "But I see a distinct lack of any ranged firepower."

"That's because the engineering team back in Italy didn't have time to come up with one for the Praetorian when I was found," Jaune replied. "That said, I hope the loss in speed and maneuverability this suit is supposed to have suffered isn't going to hamper me."

"It might, but it depends on who is attacking you," Maya answered. "But I suppose with this amount of protection you could potentially defend against most attacks, but some of the IS can use artillery grade firepower."

"So long as Cecilia or Ichika doesn't bring in an anti-tank cannon, I should be fine," Jaune said, keeping his worry down.

"Hmm, I not so sure, as the match ends when one of the combatants is reduced to 25% or lower," Maya said. "And even repeated weak attacks will drain your energy. So I wouldn't risk prolonging the fight."

"I agree, yet I know I'm not going to be the most mobile of the three," Jaune said. "So I have to outlast the others, hope that they focus on one another and largely ignore me, and sweep in and finish the fight." Maya nodded.

"Sounds like a good plan, just be prepared to throw that plan out should they choose to focus you down," Maya replied. Jaune sighed, knowing more than likely that was what they were going to do.

Approaching the _Praetorian_ , Jaune strapped himself in, with the _Praetorian_ sealing itself once he was secured in. He began going through the pre-flight diagnostic checks, making sure his energy was optimal, there were no hiccups in the system that could impede his upcoming fight, and in general pumping himself up for the upcoming fight.

"Hey Jaune, why didn't your IS go into its inactive form when you finish practicing?" Maya inquired. Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, what is it supposed to be in its inactive form?" Jaune asked, turning the helmet to look at Maya. Maya shrugged.

"It depends on the IS, some take the form of an ear ring, some a wrist band, others a belt or something, but in general it can be worn by the operator when not in use," Maya informed Jaune.

"Ah, perhaps the engineers hadn't gotten around to making the inactive form?" Jaune suggested.

"Perhaps, but all IS that I know have an inactive form," Maya said. "But perhaps you weren't informed of it by accident. When the fight is over, come back and we'll see if we can find it."

"Gotcha, and my checks are complete, so wish me luck," Jaune said. Maya smiled weakly at him.

"Um…okay, good luck?" Jaune face faulted.

"Have you no faith in me?"

"It's not that I don't think you can win in 1 v 1, but 1 v 2, yeah, I don't see you succeeding without luck on your side, and your track record with luck isn't great…"

"I get it, I must admit my luck is shitty," Jaune replied. "Well, here goes nothing!"

Unclamping the Praetorian from its support frame, Jaune gunned the engines, darting forward until he was in the air in the middle of a large coliseum, reminding him of the ones he read about that appear in Mistral back on Remnant that huntsmen would test their mettle in. The bleachers could easily accommodate thousands of people, and it was very large, able to hold a pretty intense battle.

That was until you noted that the combat would most likely take to the skies, and the weapons were significantly more powerful than anything anyone could carry on their person. Then you note the shield generators to protect the spectators, the cameras everywhere to notice the fight regardless of where it goes, and the bunker-like command room that oversaw the main fighting ground.

"Oh Arc, are you ready to be put in your place?" came the arrogant voice of Cecilia Alcott. Jaune turned and saw that his roommate was her blue IS with 4 bits floating behind her. She herself wore a hand band with a crystal in the middle, and a blue and black latex suit. however in her hand was a massive sniper rifle that made Jaune cringe; it could probably take out a tank just fine.

"Oi, I get first rights to put him in his place!" shouted Ichika, who came out in a white, gold, and blue Is with seemingly a pair of wings behind him. Jaune noted the sword in Ichika's hand, and began debating who to attack first.

If that sword was all Ichika had, then taking him out would be his best bet as regardless how you look at it, a sword will always be bested by a sword and shield combo. But if it wasn't, then he could be poking a sleeping bear and be in a world of pain.

"What gives you that right peasant?" Cecilia demanded. "Mr. Arc needs to be punished for his insults to English cuisine and to pay for throwing the sandwich onto Ms. Orimura, and that duty shall fall to me!"

Jaune saw Ichika narrow his eyes onto him. He had a bad feeling about this.

"So what if we hold off fighting each other to punish Jaune together?" Ichika suggested. Jaune gripped his sword tightly; _no way in hell he was going down without a fight!_

"Fine, but only until he is knocked out of the fight," Cecilia agreed. Jaune only had a second before the two angered students began their fight against him, despite not getting the all clear to begin by Ms. Orimura. _Here's hoping she doesn't hold it against me for defending myself_ , Jaune thought to himself.

As Cecilia and her diamond bits began to fire upon him, Jaune began moving to evade, only to have to raise his shield as Ichika slams his blade into it.

"I'll make you pay for what you did to my sister!" Ichika vows as he raises his blade again, aiming to take a strike against Jaune's side. Jaune daftly moves left, only to notice the Praetorian is hit by one of Cecilia. _Damn it, she is quite good with her rifle, to avoid hitting Ichika while aiming for me!_

Jaune was tempted to charge forward, but Ichika began relentlessly wailing on him. Jaune parries and blocks each strike, but he feels himself giving ground, getting farther and farther from Cecilia. He couldn't afford to get too far to chase down Cecilia otherwise he will be defeated easily!

 _Focus on the White Knight, then pursue the Blue Sniper!_ The thought came to him, followed by another one. Strike from the left in a cleaving motioning! Jaune follows the thoughts through, ignoring the burning sensation in his right hand.

Ichika, who had Jaune on the defense, was taken aback by the strike, hastily back pedaling to avoid getting hit. What the hell, he thought. I had him on the ropes, so where the hell did he come up with the idea to hit my weak side?

Jaune didn't allow Ichika any more time to think, as Jaune shifted from gripping his shield to having it rest behind his wrist, allowing him to two hand his sword. Jaune began thrusting rapidly, forcing Ichika to back up more often than parry. Whilst Ichika didn't know why Jaune was attacking like such, the blonde listened to his thoughts, knowing that it was all but a means to an end.

"Damn it, why the constant thrusting?!" Ichika shouted. Ichika may have some knowledge in kendo, but that had plenty of swinging and thrusting was reserved for ending fights, not the main form of attack. Ichika therefore was shocked when the blonde finally spoke.

"It's not about taking you out," Jaune said. Ichika was about to ask what he meant when he felt something impact him from behind. Ichika's eyes widen in realization; Jaune was backing him in front of Cecilia, thus making her shots hit him instead of Jaune.

"You coward, quit hiding behind your fellow peasant!" Cecilia shouted out in frustration. She fired a barrage of heat-seeking missiles at Jaune. Taken aback by the surprise ordnance, Jaune didn't have time to react, but the _Praetorian_ did. Launching flares, the Praetorian focused all energy to shields to protect Jaune from any that came after him.

While most of the missiles were indeed thrown off target, two managed to land on Jaune. One hit his shield, thus doing minimal damage, but the other hit him in the chest, knocking him back away from Ichika and open to fire from Cecilia.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Jaune shouted as he went to gripping his shield with his right hand, the burning sensation beginning to overwhelm him. He tried to think of a way not to lose, but couldn't come up with one. His plan to get close to Cecilia via a back stepping Ichika had failed, and now he was open to attack.

 _Block the incoming fire and advance slowly, keeping your shield towards the Blue Sniper_ , a thought came through. Jaune grunted; it would have to do. Jaune brought his shield to cover his entire front, with the _Praetorian_ using sensors within the shield to give him sight of his opponents. Jaune slowly advance, hearing pings and dings off his shield as Cecilia and her bits fired fruitlessly into it. Jaune made it relatively close to her when Ichika came barreling down onto him, his sword raised high above his head.

 _Fall back and focus on the White Knight, let him fall into the hail of fire the Blue Sniper is unleashing. Then counter with an upward slash across his left and finish him with a thrust!_ The thought almost exploded into his head, and Jaune, feeling tired and noticing his energy reserves were at 60%, went through with the plan.

Jaune flew back, but at the speeds Ichika was going, the Japanese male was unable to redirect his course out of the line of fire, getting pelted with numerous shots from Cecilia. The Japanese male turned his head to shout at the british girl, but she screamed, forcing him to look back and saw Jaune about to slash him when he was exposed.

"You're not going to win this Arc!" Ichika shouted, trying to get his blade in-between himself and Jaune's gladius. Jaune ignored the proclamation, instead focusing on delivering his blow. The _Praetorian_ enhanced Jaune blow by redirecting power to the servo motors in the arm, allowing the swing to go faster and punch harder.

Ichika, through sheer luck, managed to block the swing, but it was still a lot of force. He was forced off center, unable to get into a position of power quickly. Jaune exploited this moment of weakness, rearing back his arm for a powerful thrust.

"It's over for you!" Jaune declared, feeling something envelop him and the _Praetorian_. His gladius began to glow with energy, and feeling emboldened, Jaune thrusted into the _Byakushiki_ , decimating the _Byakushiki's_ shield as easily as a hot knife through butter.

"Ichika Orimura is out by shield depletion," came the voice of Ms. Orimura. Jaune smiled for a moment, only to get drawn back into reality as he felt his right hand flare in pain. Quickly recognizing something was wrong, Jaune darted away from his position, only to realize he had now the undivided attention of Cecilia Alcott, who had launched over a dozen missiles, had her bits move away from her and began unleashing all the fire she could onto him.

Jaune moved as quickly as he could, raising his shield to protect him from the bit's fire, dumping flares left and right to get the missiles off his tail, and tried to close to within striking range of Cecilia. However, the amount of fire coming in, even with the power being diverted to defenses again, was whittling down the shield energy, which sat precariously at 40% and dropping.

In addition, despite how much Jaune was pushing the Praetorian toward Cecilia, her Blue Tears was simply too fast for him to catch up to. Jaune grimaced in realization; without any means to attack Cecilia at range, he would never be able to attack her if she kept moving. He patched himself over to the control room overlooking the match.

"Ms. Orimura, I'm forefieting," Jaune said. "As it is, there is no way for me to close the distance to Cecilia without losing. Therefore, dragging this fight out is a simply an exercise of futility." He heard the elder Orimura hum in contemplation.

"Very well then Arc, at least you recognize when it's futile to continue fighting. But if you do forfeit-dumbass pay attention!"

Jaune was about to ask what that was about when he saw several new missiles heading straight for his face. He sweat dropped in realization; _Oum damn it all to hell_. The Praetorian was rocked by a series of explosions, and Jaune's head hit the side of his helmet, which in combination with the concussive force of the explosions and the constant ringing in his ear, knocked him out.

* * *

"Ugh," Jaune groaned, his eyes wearily opening. In addition, the ringing in his ear was continuing somehow, and his right hand felt like it had been pressed into a waffle iron. He sighed, turning his head to see Cecilia, Ichika, and Chifuyu standing next to the hospital bed he was in.

"You know, I've never seen such a chaotic fight at this Academy before," Chifuyu commented. "Friendly fire, 2 on 1, and firing upon a clearly surrendering person, I don't think this compares to any fights before. All of the above happened before sure, but not in the same match."

Ichika and Cecilia looked abashed, clearly concerned for how their teacher was going to react to the fight that just happened. Jaune meanwhile was still suffering from being knocked out and therefore didn't have any tact in his response.

"So what does that mean for us?" Jaune asked. Chifuyu chuckled.

"Overall, nothing; it was a fight and things like this happen. However, you two-" she pointed at Ichika and Cecilia- "Didn't even wait for me to announce the beginning of the fight, and therefore will be forced to submit a 3000 word essay on the importance of waiting before engaging in a tournament style fight, along with 40 hours of flight time in the trainer IS frame and not your personal ISs." She then turned to Jaune.

"You meanwhile will simply continue your sentence in the kitchens, only with one less week due to taking out Mr. Orimura," Chifuyu said. Jaune gave a weak grin and raised his right hand.

"Yay," Jaune weakly cheered. However, he was oblivious to the looks of shock on Cecilia's, Ichika's and Chifuyu's face. They all wondered why the hell it looked like Jaune's hand was dipped in a deep fryer for a couple of seconds. Chifuyu gave a pointed look to Cecilia and Ichika, nonverbally instructing them to keep silent about what they saw. They quickly nodded.

"Anyway, I've lessons to look over, so you rest Mr. Arc. I expect you in class tomorrow, so don't you dare show up late."

"Aye Ms. Orimura," Jaune said. He didn't even get to say anything to his opponents as when he laid back down, he fell right back asleep.

* * *

 **Author's Note: And that's a wrap! We finally get to see the fight between Jaune, Cecilia, and Ichika, and it was different from the fight between Ichika and Cecilia. Ichika didn't use his plasma sword, as he wasn't thinking, merely reacting, and Cecilia got to put Jaune down. The reason for this is similar to how I see how a heavily armored centurion facing off against a horse archer. Sure, if the centurion only needs to hold ground then it would win, but if he has to chase down the horse archer, he will lose as he lacks the mobility and range to stop the horse archer from getting away and pelting him with arrows.**

 **Now I'm not going to cover the reviews as I'm sick with a sore throat and wrote this chapter whilst sick so I'm pretty tired. But I will cover a few questions brought up in the reviews, as most of the reviews were about this chapter's fight scene and thus answered already.**

 **-Harem route for Jaune: No harems for Jaune in this story. I have thought about have Jaune also pairing up with Laura Bodewig, but I will see what you guys think. But the others are too close to Ichika (Rin and Houki), will predominately hang out with Ichika (Charlotte), and some are getting the stick of JUSTICE (that freaking Mary-Sue Tatenashi) out of this story.**

 **-Jaune's Cooking: Huh, possibly will happen, might be a future punishment for the poor blonde bastard.**

 **-Mr. Coltello and Senator Armstrong: Yes, a guest brought this up, but I could conceivably add a character like Armstrong to the story as an associate of Mr. Coltello. But will I; maybe. I have to give this some thought.**

 **So until next time, please read, review, follow, favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Forging relations

* * *

Jaune felt a disturbance in the dorm room. Since he had been released last night from the infirmary, Jaune had been on edge. But no one had made comment of the sandwich incident, nor the fight, and Ichika and Cecilia were oddly quiet. But he felt something was going to fuck with him, and soon, and it appeared to be happening now.

Cracking his right eye open, he saw Cecilia wasn't in her bed. This raised an immediate red flag; if she wasn't in her bed, she could be going for that accursed marble bookend! He sat up and began scanning the room, but was confused to see that Cecila wasn't anywhere in the dorm. In fact, now that he listened, the shower wasn't running. So she wasn't in the dorm, which was odd. Usualy when he got up, she would be sitting on her bed, waiting for the clock…to…run…down to class. Snapping his attention to the nearby clock, he realized that it was ten after classes started.

"FUCK!" Jaune shouted, jumping out of bed, remembering that Ms. Orimura warned him she wouldn't tolerate him being late. Since he was fucked, he jumped to his dresser, and hastily got into his uniform at break neck speed. He might be late, but god forbid if he was severely late! Last thing he wanted was to incur the wrath of Ms. Orimura because he failed to wake up on time.

After he was dressed, Jaune grabbed his school bag (which he never, ever, if possible, emptied) and dashed to the classroom. He saw a few students meandering the halls, confusion on their face, but he ignored them; he had a class to get to! HE was thankfully able to get to the classroom quickly, and he opened the door.

"I'm sorry Ms. Orimura for being late! I promise I-" Jaune was cutoff not with a clipboard, but rather a smack across the back of the head. He turned and saw Ms. Orimura was leaning on the wall, seemingly bored.

"Mr. Arc, you do realize what day it is, right?" Ms. Ormiura asked. Jaune paused.

"Um, it's a school day right?" Jaune asked hesitantly. "I mean, you did say not to show up late yesterday, and while I was-" Ms. Orimura shook her head whilst chuckling.

"It wasn't until I was in a staff meeting late last night did I remember that today was Saturday, and thus you have no classes," Ms. Orimura said. "So Mr. Arc, you are in luck; you don't have my classes to deal with today, so relax until it is time to serve your detention in the kitchens." Ms. Orimura began to head out of the classroom, pausing in the doorway.

"Oh, one more Mr. Arc, has anyone shown you how to put your IS into its inactive form?"

"No Ms. Orimura, I know Ms. Yamada was going to show me after the match, but yeah…." Ms. Orimura nodded.

"Very well then, follow me. I'll show you so your IS is on you as much as possible." Jaune followed Ms. Orimura to the Is hangar, and saw the _Praetorian_ standing proudly in its stand, where a couple of engineers along with Ms. Vera seemingly working on it.

"Ah, Ms. Orimura, Mr. Arc, I wasn't expecting you so soon," Vera said politely. "I was going to call you to the station Jaune so I can go over the modifications we are doing to the _Praetorian_ , but since you are here, we can get it over with."

"Um, what are the engineers doing?" Jaune asked, a bit puzzled by the massive case that was situated at the feet of the Praetorian.

"Ah, well first the engineers are updating the various software used to run the Praetorian, which should see a 25% increase in calculations speed and in the process improve its combat capabilities by 12%. In addition, they are modifying the Praetorian's targeting system to accommodate the biggest component of the upgrade kit, the Scorpio siege cannon."

"What kind of ordnance will it be using?" Ms. Chifuyu asked. Vera was about to answer, but the engineers hefted the massive cannon up. The barrel was roughly as tall as Jaune was, with an arrow-head style muzzle break at the end of the barrel. This barrel was attached to a massive automatic engine, where it was fed by a backpack-mounted magazine. However, Jaune saw that the cannon was being mounted on the shoulder, similar he supposed a soldier would carry a rocket launcher.

"The Scorpio Siege Cannon is a 40mm auto-cannon able to use a variety of ammunitions, including the unique ground-penetrating explosive filled shells, HEDP shells, AA shells, and finally AP shells. It is based on the Italian Navy's DARDO close in weapon systems, and as such the _Praetorian_ has been equipped to accommodate a similar target tracking system."

Jaune felt his jaw drop; seriously what the hell? A Sword and shield he could understand how to use, but he never held a gun, not even a relatively harmless bb gun! How the hell will he be expected to master using something like this?!

"Um, Ms. Vera, you do realize I've never shot a gun before, much less a cannon, right?" Jaune asked. Vera waved his concern off like one might a noisy child.

"The _Praetorian_ will be able to handle the tracking and firing of the autocannon independent of your actions, so don't worry too much about having to handle the autocannon. You can however manually take control over the autocannon with a simple voice command, but I would recommend getting some practice before using it in a match, otherwise you could fluster yourself and lose the match."

"Right," Jaune said, defeated at how Vera dismissed his concerns. Seriously, did no one care about his life? However, Ms. Orimura jumped in again.

"Anyway, I came here to show Jaune how to shift his IS into its inactive form, mind if I show him?" Vera shook her head.

"Of course not, just give us a minute to finish the installation of the Scorpio," Ms. Vera answered. Thankfully for Jaune, the engineers were finished in a couple of minutes, and they left the hangar with Ms. Vera.

"Alright Jaune, since they are gone, get in your IS," Ms. Orimura instructed. Jaune hastily got in, briefly noting the slight changes in his heads-up display and a monitor showing how much ammo the Scorpio had, where it was aiming, and its fire mode. "Now then, you should be able to access your IS's functions through a voice command, although each nation has their own variation, so experiment with commands you think would make the most sense."

Jaune nodded, pondering what would make the most sense. Since it was to put his IS into a compact, inactive form, Jaune decided to begin there.

"Deactivate _Praetorian_ ," Jaune commanded. Instead of shrinking however, it merely shut down its systems. Jaune sighed. " _Praetorian_ , activate." It activated, so thankfully even if he turned his IS off by accident he could get it back up and running. But that didn't solve the issue with shrinking.

For the next five minutes, Jaune tried to get the _Praetorian_ to shrink, only for it to fail. That said, he did find out some minor features, but nothing that was helping him with his current situation. At this point, Ms. Orimura saw something along the IS's blade.

"Hey Jaune, any reason the sword is name Crocea Mors?" Jaune paused, could it be that simple? Deciding to test it, he spoke what he would say to change the _Praetorian_ to Crocea Mors.

" _Praetorian_ , shift form to Crocea Mors," Jaune said. Finally, after several minutes of failures, the _Praetorian_ changed form to that of the blade and sheath/shield Crocea Mors, with a nice belt to put his sheath on.

"Well, that's that," Jaune muttered. He saw Ms. Orimura looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. "About Crocea Mors, it was based on the blade and shield I had which according to Ms. Vera are made of osmium. Don't ask me why the sword is made of the stuff, it was my grandfathers before it fell into my possession."

"So they took your sword and used it as the basis for the weapon of the IS?"

"Yeah, apparently they were having a hard time finding a suitable weapon, which is odd because how could they build this Scorpio so soon?"

"Ah, all IS frames have a primary weapon that is unique to each and everyone. You remember Cecilia's Blue Tear's sniper rifle? Or Ichika's two handed sword? Building and designing those weapons is probably what gave the engineers working on the _Praetorian_ a hard time, as some cores are more suited to close range combat and others long range, cores may prefer precision or focus on more area denial weapons. In essence, each core is picky with its primary weapon."

"Huh, sounds like the cores are somewhat sentient," Jaune muttered, which caused Ms. Orimura to shake her head.

"Not really, but each core is unique in its coding, so of course there are going to be differences," she pointed out. "Oh well, I have papers to do, so enjoy the rest of your day until your detention." Jaune watched as Ms. Orimura left, leaving him with a sudden epiphany.

"Oh god, I have no one to hangout with. Well shit, what the hell should I do today?"

* * *

Cecilia Alcott was busy in the library, cursing liberally in her head very unlady-like. She was putting the finishing touches to the essay that Ms. Orimura had given her and Ichika for failing to wait. It took her sometime to find a way to fudge 3000 words in, and she had been forced to open up the Academy's rules and infractions book. Which had enlighten her (and was the cause of her anger) to the small fact that if it had been a proper tournament, she would've been disqualified and removed from the Academy, no longer able to be a Representative Candidate.

She fumed; her future, her ability to maintain what was left to her with the passing of her family, could've all been lost because she had been impatient! She could easily think how fast her remaining relatives would be kicking her to the curb and taking her family's fortune for themselves. And it was this mixed with the realization that she could've been beaten by Jaune Arc if he had gotten close that infuriated her. Losing everything and losing to him would've thrown her over the edge.

She sighed, as she put aside her pen to stretch her arms. She knew that from now on, she would most assuredly wait until it was clear to go, despite how much she would wish otherwise. She was contemplating if she should begin the 40 hours of her Is training, without her precious Blue Tears, when she heard a crash and a moan. Getting up, Cecilia investigated the source of the noise, only to see the one person she really didn't want to have anything to do with in a heap with a disgusting large book resting next to his head.

"Seriously Arc, as you that much of an imbecile that you can't even collect a book without smashing it into your skull, or were you hoping that by hitting the book into your head it would impart some of its knowledge into your daft brain?" Cecilia mocked Jaune, before looking at the book that Jaune had attempted to grab. "'The Encyclopedia of Modern Ordnance.' Why the hell would you be looking at that book; your IS doesn't use any cannons." Jaune groaned before he got up to a sitting position.

"Well, apparently, it does now," Jaune said. "I just went to figure out how to partial deploy my Is so it's on myself at all times and the engineers were putting a 40mm autocannon on it." Cecilia saw the sword and sheath, mentally noting it as Jaune's Is minimum form, before raising an eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously, and this led me to finding out what I can about it so I know how to use it," Jaune said. "Hell, I've never fired a gun before, so I need all I can so I don't muck up the next time I find myself in a training fight." Cecilia pinched her nose.

"Jaune, how is your autocannon mounted, and does it have an auto-fire mode?"

"Um, its shoulder mounted, and it does," Jaune confirmed. Cecilia sighed.

"Then let the targeting program do the work for you; you think I manually aim the shots by bits takes?" Cecilia said. "At most, the take the information of the target that is transmitted to them by my sniper rifle's scope, and more often than not they use their own targeting programming to fire at the target."

Jaune paused before he sighed in defeat.

"So you mean to tell me that I whacked myself in the head with this heavy book for no reason?" Jaune asked, and when he saw Cecilia nodded he facepalmed with his right hand. Cecilia frowned, seeing it was still burnt.

"Jaune, how exactly did you acquire that burn on your hand?" Cecilia asked. Jaune paused; while he suspected that it was his IS that was causing the burns, it did help focus his mind, as it did keep him from getting to high during his fight between Cecilia and Ichika. But he couldn't exactly lie, as he did nothing to result in him getting a burn; not even his detentions in the kitchens gave him the excuse for the burn, as all heat sources and generators were turned off when dinner was finished and it was roughly twenty minutes before they turned their attention to washing-Jaune mentally smiled.

"Ah, well, on one of my detentions in the kitchens I sort of forgot to wear a glove over my hand when I did the dishes, and those faucets get really hot and are under high pressure," Jaune lied. "Needless to say, I got burnt pretty bad."

Cecilia shook her head in disbelief, though not because she didn't buy the lie, but because it sounded too much like the idiot.

"Plebian, how could you fail to remember that when your left hand is perfectly fine?" Cecilia pointed towards Jaune's left hand. Jaune shook his head.

"I'm right handed, so I scrub dishes with my right hand and hold them in my left," Jaune improvised, though this time truthfully. "So really, my right hand is the only one in danger of being burned."

"Why do I even try and deal with you?" Cecilia asked rhetorically, although Jaune didn't pick up on its manner.

"Um, because I'm your roommate and as far as I could tell, you literally have no friends here," Jaune said. Cecilia rounded on him.

"That's a lie you-" Cecilia paused, before thinking a little. She may not be the most social, but surely she, as Britain's IS Representative Candidate, would have some friends…but she kept drawing blanks. She didn't really hang out with her peers, and she couldn't remember any of the conversations she swore she had. The more she thought, the more she realized; she was all alone.

"Heh, I guess you're right, but you're still a jerk for through my sandwich onto Ms. Orimura!" Jaune sighed.

"Really, this again?" Jaune said. "First off, I didn't throw it at her, I dropped it out of the window, and she happened to be walking underneath the drop zone. Second, your sandwich, which I recall you calling a cucumber sandwich, was made with pickles!"

"It was not, I made sure that they were made with cucumbers!" Cecilia defended her cooking. Jaune paused.

"Then why in all god's name were the 'cucumbers' moist and sour?!" Jaune demanded. "Seriously, the only logical response is if they were cucumbers then they must've rotted and should've given us food poisoning! So you tell me, how the hell do you store your cucumbers?!"

"I store them like my personal maid Chelsea told me to; by putting them in this earthenware jar submerged in this brine recipe that she maid, keep them in a cool dark place, and to occasionally skim the water of any weird bits!" Cecilia shouted back. Jaune stared at her for a moment, before facepalming again.

"For fuck sakes, Cecilia, that is how you make pickles!" Jaune said. "Cucumbers submerged in a brine and then left to age become pickles!"

"What, really?" Cecilia said, slightly confused. "But Chelsea-"

"Does she like giving you hell for no reason?" Jaune interrupted.

"Um, she does tease me, but why-" Cecilia couldn't finish as Jaune groaned in frustration.

"Cecilia, Chelsea is trolling you," Jaune said. "She knew that what she was giving you would be pickles, but told you they were cucumbers. I mean I suppose she isn't lying to you, just omitting the fact that that the cucumbers would become pickles."

Cecilia frowned and upon reflection, this would totally be something that Chelsea would do to give her grief. However, her moment of reflection (and revenge building) was put on hold as Jaune asked a pretty reasonable question.

"Cecilia, where did you keep this jar that your pickles are in?" Jaune asked.

* * *

Evelyn was standing with a detachment of the facility's guards, waiting for their person to act as the test pilot of the Strazha to arrive. She had wanted Vera to be here, but the upgrade kit couldn't be delayed and she wanted someone she trusted to be there installing the upgrades, as it would enable the second-wave of the _Angel's Prayer_ into the Praetorian. The first wave worked as intended, now for the more elaborate systems.

Her thoughts on the Angel's Prayer were interrupted by the arrival of a large armored sedan with blacked out windows. The front passenger door opened, revealing an ally of Mr. Coltello; Senator Steven Armstrong, former Italian Special Forces and a strong supporter of the military needs of Italy, he was amongst the few 'old guard' that argued against the move to replace several well-known and battle tested male officers with untested (and often failed) female officers. He was broad shoulder, tall, well-toned from rigorous exercising, and wearing his signature square shaped glasses and suit.

"Good to see you Ms. Adessi, it's been too long," Armstrong said, extending his hand towards her. Evelyn remembered the dinner parties she used to host and how close Jean and Armstrong were, despite Armstrong's shift into politics.

"Good to see you too Steven, and I concur," the doctor said. "I take it you are the ones rallying the Senators to our cause?" Armstrong nodded.

"Of course; most of them are foolish wind bags who couldn't stand at attention for Italy, but they are fucking greedy, so they are easy to manipulate to suit our cause," Armstrong said, before speaking more quietly. "By the way, sorry for not keeping in touch since Jean's passing; the senate ever since the reveal of the IS has been truly hellish to deal with."

"I could tell from how many times you had to keep that bitch, what the hell's her name?"

"Let me guess, Senator Adera Levit, the one always trying to kick whatever male influence there is in the Italian Government?" Armstrong said. Evelyn nodded.

"That one, fucking bitch will be amongst the first to be under the hatchet once the Legion Accord goes through," Evelyn replied. "Now, where is our test pilot for the Strazha?" The senator began to speak, only for the door behind him to open.

"My, my, I can't wait to see what toys I get to play with this time!" said a male voice way too cheerfully for the mood. "Why, I can't wait to plaster the walls with the blood of Phantom Task's operatives!"

Dr. Adessi looked at the person connected to the voice, slightly shocked by what she saw. A male teen of average height only around the age of fourteen with orange hair, fair skin, and wearing black track suit, the thing that caught the doctor's eye was his eyes; they were a crimson red and emerald green, and they sparkle with an insane delight. The photo's and the profile didn't do justice for this kid.

"Ah, Augustus, meet Dr. Evelyn Adessi; she is the one that is responsible for creating the Strazha and is going to train you in its uses," Armstrong told the young teen. Augustus chuckled.

"Oh boy, I can't wait to see the Strazha for myself," Augustus said to himself, chuckling for a moment before turning his attention to Evelyn. "So doctor, tell me, will the Strazha live up to its claims, will it be the next evolution of war and death?!"

Evelyn felt a cold chill run down her spine; the way this kid could be so cheerful at the thought of killing, it made her wonder where the hell Mr. Coltello and the others found him.

"Yes it will, once we get the relevant data from our unwitting mole in the IS Academy," Dr. Adessi said. Augustus moaned.

"Ah damn it, I was hoping to take it out for a spin and massacre a few of Phantom Task's cells!" Augustus whined. "Well, what about the Legion Accord? Will I be able to entertain myself with them?" Evelyn was glad when Armstrong answered for her.

"Don't worry Augustus about the small details, your time as the vanguard to the destruction of the image of IS immortality will be in sight, and then you can at your leisure hunt down and kill all of Phantom Task with the Strazha," Armstrong said. Augustus smiled at the senator.

"Alright then, I will leave the planning to you guys, and I'll focus on the killing!" Augustus replied cheerfully. He began to walk into the facility, and Evelyn motioned the guard to escort him to his room. When they were well out of earshot Evelyn looked at Armstrong.

"Is that kid for real?" Armstrong shook his head.

"If you thought us using him as a child soldier was fucked up, you should've seen what Phantom Task did to him that made him this way," Armstrong said before getting back in the sedan. He paused for a moment.

"Evelyn, I won't pretend to understand how the Strazha is supposed to best the IS, let alone an Academy full of them, but do take care not to feed Augustus's ego; he has a bit of a superiority complex to those he views as his lesser, and if you feed that ego even a little, it will be like giving an acholic a free bar tab."

The sedan pulled away, leaving Evelyn to wonder how the hell she was accomplish such a fine balance between meeting the goals of the group and not intoxicating the kid's ego.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Woah damn, sorry for the delay, kind of had a bit of an issue trying to work on this chapter, as I didn't know exactly how to go about it until now. Anyway, onto the reviews!**

 **-Laura being one of Jaune's girlfriend: There was a fair amount of responses, and most sway to yay over nay, so I think I will have it be a three-way Jaune/Cecilia/Laura. If you disagree, well have some faith in me and give it a chance.**

 **-The fight: Yes, the fight was short, but it was to see if that pacing, wording, and amount of action was good, and by the general reaction it was, the only major complaints being it was short and perhaps a few hiccups that are easily remedied.**

 **-Pain glove: As Mdizzle said, a Is which cause your hand to feel pain is at first glance a bad, nay, terrible design flaw. But the reason for it was touched on in this chapter; it quickly snaps Jaune back to focusing by delivering pain when he needs it. It's like having a shock collar on a dog with those electric fences; the dog learns not to cross a certain point otherwise its receives pain. In Jaune's case, when he lapses in concentration, when he fucks up, when he in general screws something up in a fight, his IS does inflict pain onto him to get him back on track.**

 **I borrowed the idea from a source that I mentioned in one of my author's notes (remember Commissar Moran?), and the source will be partially responsible for Jaune's evolution as a character, as is the Angel's Prayer, which is about to become more invasive and domineering for him. As for the source, it won't be a crossover for that as it's only going to borrow elements in name, so if you can pick up on the clues, have a cookie and wait for the fireworks.**

 **-Augustus: Oh yes, this character is going to be a major antagonist, and he will have no redemption arc; he is simply too far gone to be saved or to redeem himself. As he is going to be the first pilot for the Strazha, it will be critical for me to design the Strazha to be effective in its goal; a IS-killer that can unleash strategic levels of destruction. For that, I go outside of RWBY and Infinite Stratos to a series where Mechs are a big deal; Armored Core. Again, it will be in name and elements only, but do note that when we see the Strazha for the first time there will be a minor disclaimer indicating I don't own the rights to Armored Core.**

 **That's all for now, as always, please read, review, follow, and favorite the story, and I'll catch you guys next time (much sooner than it did this one)!**


	8. Author's Note Very important

**Author's Note**

 **Hello everyone, this is Panzer4life, and this A/N that is going out to all of my stories, and it deals with a very sudden event that pertains to all of my stories, so I urge you to read this.**

 **At the beginning of June, I woke up, preparing to head to my new job at the local gas station when I found to my horror my computer wouldn't start right. It went automatically to the repair page, did not boot up Windows 10, and I had no means to bypass. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, seemed to work. Taking apart the computer to clean it, trying to reinstall Windows 10, using all the options afforded to me by the repair page, none of it worked. So I had to shell out over $600 to buy myself a laptop.**

 **Now, why does this affect you, my dear readers? Well, you see I was a dumbass and didn't think to have a backup of all of my files,** _ **including the files with all of my writing projects**_ **.**

 **Yes, you read that right, all of my writing projects. All of my current and pre-published/proto stories, gone with my computer. So this puts me into a pickle; what the fuck do I do? Some stories will be easy to get back into things and start writing, others not so much.**

 **So what I am going to is list the status of my stories, and if they are getting the axe, explaining why.**

 **All of the following will be continued;**

 **-A Certain Scientific Kugelblitz (rewrite)**

 **-A Certain Occult Connection**

 **-A Certain Scientific Angelica**

 **-Arc of Fate**

 **-Demon Lord of the Empire**

 **-Jaune Arc the Praetor**

 **-Gaige the Mechromancer Huntress**

 **-Rise of Remnant**

 **The following will be canceled;**

 **-A Certain Demonic Accelerator: This story is popular, despite only having 3 chapters to it done, and its easy to see why; the story has a good premise, with lots of room for potential. So why is it being canceled; simple, I can't bring myself to write it anymore. I open a word document, write a few thousand words, only to erase everything because it feels like shit, doesn't mesh well, or has a major logical fallacy. That and I had lost all of the work I had done to doing chapter 4 and I just can't.**

 **-A Reaping Rose: Again, this was a popular story, so why is this getting axe'd? Simple, I lost interest in writing it. That and Season 3 and 4 of Rwby, plus Elsword's additional content since I began writing, threw one hell of a wrench into my plans. So I might give it another go later, but right now, its dead.**

 **-A Rose's Endwar: Ah, this was a story that I had great plans for, was super hyped to write, but fell into the trap of being unable to make up my damn mind where to take the story. This in turn hurt the story overall, and my ability to write it. So this one is being led to Madam Guillotine.**

 **-Of Blood and Steel: Seriously, this story has so little going for it, and I've lost interest in Girls Und Panzer, so yeah, to the firing squad with this one.**

 **-Remnant Crisis: Damn, another story I really liked, had decently laid out, only to have the issue of hating everything I wrote when it came time to write for it. So not only am I not continuing this story, but it's getting eaten by a sexual Tyrannosaurs.**

 **So damn, I'm cancelling 4 of my stories (which will be taken down in a week's time), what will I be doing to make up for these loses? Well you see, I am going to create 4 new stories to replace these ones. One I have been planning for ages based on my favorite franchise, two based around stories I haven't done any fan-fic for yet, and one that I had planned on publishing around Halloween last year but didn't because I didn't have enough material for me to publish it quite yet. What are they, well, Im going to leave that as a surprise as 1) I need to set up my writing folder once more, and 2) they won't be published for awhile. Oh well.**

 **So expect me to return hopefully in full force to writing as with my part time job I can think about my stories in peace. In the mean time, please, read, review, follow, and favorite my stories, and I'll catch you guys next time.**

 **PS: Before I forget, if anyone wants to take over any of the stories I am cancelling, you have my complete blessing.**


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